Ellen Pompeo has been removed from Grey’s Anatomy.
Maybe for the last time.
On Thursday afternoon, the veteran actress uploaded the following photo of herself and included a message for all her beloved medical drama fans.
“I am so grateful and humbled for the love and support you all have shown me, Meredith GRAY and the show for 19 seasons!” wrote the star to open this caption.
He wrote it one week after the winter finale of Grey’s Anatomy aired on ABC.
Immediately after this episode, fans were treated to a preview of what’s to come in the series – highlighted by a number of Meredith’s coworkers saying goodbye before the character’s move to the east coast.
Prior to Season 19, the network confirmed that Pompeo would only appear in a total of 8 episodes this fall and winter.
The final two installments will premiere in February and early March.
“Through it all….nothing…is possible without the best fans in the world. All of you RIDERS and all of you have made this ride so much fun and ICONIC!!” Pompeo continued on social media.
He concluded as follows:
I love you so much and appreciate you back. It’s not the first time you’ve been on a rollercoaster… you know the show needs to go on and I’ll definitely be back for a visit.
With lots of love and big.
Pompeo stepped back from this season’s long-running show to pursue outside projects… including the Hulu adaptation of the 2009 film Orphan, which follows a harrowing adoption story in which the couple’s new daughter turns out to be a grown woman disguised as a child.
He’s made it clear many times in the past that he desperately wants Grey’s Anatomy to end.
But bosses keep throwing millions of dollars at him!
“I feel like a very naive person who keeps saying, ‘But what is the story going to be, what story are we going to tell?’” Pompeo said in December 2021.
“And everybody was like, ‘Who cares, Ellen? It makes a trillion dollars.’”
Meredith’s storyline appears to have concluded with the surgeon’s decision to leave Seattle for Boston, where she accepted a position at the Catherine Fox Foundation to research Alzheimer’s disease.
It should be noted that, unlike many other fictional doctors throughout the history of Grey’s Anatomy, Meredith was not killed.
Her new job certainly opened the door for guest appearances.
ABC, of course, will likely need to renew Grey’s Anatomy for another season for this to happen.
Are you listening, executive?!?