Grey’s Anatomy might already be the longest-running primetime scripted TV show in history, but you know what it could do with? That’s right, another season! Season 20 just premiered on March 14, but for fans (very) old and new, there’s never enough drama—medical or otherwise—going down at Grey Sloane Memorial Hospital. Some people might think that after 20 seasons the writers would run out of material, and yet the show keeps proving them wrong. So are we going to be getting a season 21 of Grey’s Anatomy? Here’s everything we know so far about that possibility.
Alright, is season 21 of Grey’s Anatomy happening?
The official word? It absolutely is! Variety reported on April 2, just three weeks after the first episode of season 20 aired, that the series would return for season 21.
And it’s not like we had to sweat it too much. In fact, Grey’s showrunner Meg Marinis (who has been working on the show for 18 years) explicitly said the team hasn’t planned on season 20 being the end of the series. “I’ve not been informed that this is the last season so I’m going to keep going and telling stories as long as they let me,” she said in an interview with Deadline. “We still have stories to tell. We receive a tremendous amount of support from the studio and the network and from Shondaland. So I’m going to keep going until they tell me to put that pen down.”
What would season 21 be about?
This is a tricky one because as any Grey’s fan will tell you, you never know what direction the show is going to go…or who they’re going to kill off (yes, I’m still traumatized from the Lexi/McSteamy deaths), so we have no idea how season 20 is going to end. Season 20 also marks the first season in the show’s history in which Ellen Pompeo, who plays the titular Meredith Grey, won’t be a main cast member. Instead, she’ll be appearing in just a handful of episodes. In a recent interview with Drew Barrymore, Ellen said she was “super happy” with her decision to take a step back, so it doesn’t seem like she’s looking to return full-time if there is a season 21.
What fans can count on with a theoretical season 21 are some old faithfuls, like Miranda Bailey getting the interns into shape (and helping to save them when they inevitably land themselves in some trouble) and Dr. Webber coming in with words of wisdom here and there. What we hope to see happen is more of the Jo/Link storyline and Teddy back in action after making a full recovery after her emergency surgery.
When would Grey’s Anatomy season 21 come out?
The last few seasons of the show have been on an unusual schedule, airing in different months every year, so predicting an exact date for future seasons has become more challenging and less formulaic. Each season typically has ~20 episodes that are released over a 7-to-8-month period, but this season is shorter due to the SAG-AFTRA strike work stoppages. There is usually less than a year between seasons (and sometimes as little as just four months!) so if all goes well, we could be looking at early to mid-2025 for a season 21 release date.
