10 Years After McDreamy: Meet the New Heartthrob Shaking Up Grey’s Anatomy

Derek Shepherd dying in season 11 forever changed Grey’s Anatomy, but the medical drama has seemingly picked out his replacement 10 years later. A key Grey’s Anatomy character because of his relationship with Meredith, Derek brought his fair share of chaos to Seattle Grace due to his conflicted marriage to Addison, his lofty professional ambitions, and his messy personal life.

Derek and Meredith’s romance of epic proportions made Derek the sun for half of Grey’s Anatomy, with the story inevitably revolving around him. This made Derek’s death in Grey’s Anatomy season 11 forcefully shift the medical drama’s focus. His absence for 10 years nevertheless made enough time pass that it can now justify Grey’s Anatomy bringing forth a Derek replacement.

Grey’s Anatomy Sets Up Lucas To Be Derek Shepherd’s True Replacement

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Amelia’s arrival in Grey’s Anatomy season 10 ensured the Shepherds wouldn’t be too far from the action, even with Derek dying in season 11. Despite sharing their specialty and a traumatic past, Amelia and Derek were always very different characters, making her arrival not feel like Amelia replaced Derek, as their headspace when getting to Grey Sloan was strikingly dissimilar.

While the same could be said about Lucas, as he joined Grey Sloan as an intern instead of a renowned neurosurgeon, the hospital worked as a fresh start for Lucas like it did for Derek. Indeed, while Derek chose Seattle to move on from his complicated personal life, getting to Grey Sloan was Lucas’s last-minute chance to become a resident.

Lucas and Simone’s relationship mirroring MerDer’s instability of the earlier Grey’s Anatomy seasons made the comparison of Lucas with Derek more evident, especially as he was a Shepherd from his mother’s side. However, no Grey’s Anatomy season included a moment of truth equating Lucas as Derek’s replacement as season 21 did.

The details about Lucas’s personal life, like his being good at golf or having four sisters like Derek, that Grey’s Anatomy season 21 scattered already made the similarities undeniable. However, Lucas’s stubbornness to advocate for his patients made him the most similar to Derek, as it pushed him to look for impossible saves for them despite being only an intern.

Why It’s Poetic Justice For Lucas To Fill The Void That Derek Left In Grey’s Anatomy

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There is no shortage of cocky doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial, and Grey’s Anatomy regularly attributes their ability to achieve impossible feats over and over to successfully balancing the tricky line between confidence and hubris. However, Lucas being Derek’s replacement goes further than Lucas sharing Derek’s self-assurance, which is also influenced by their belonging to a notorious family of doctors.

Lucas’s tendency to close himself off to others in seasons 20 and 21 mirrored his uncle’s worst traits that made Derek anything but McDreamy in Grey’s Anatomy. However, Lucas being at Grey Sloan as an intern means his shortcomings can be explored by the medical drama and eventually overcome, unlike with Derek, who never lost his aura of invulnerability.

Their different roles within Grey Sloan Memorial make Lucas being Derek’s replacement the best possible option to bring back a semblance of what Derek was to Grey’s Anatomy. Enough time has passed that Lucas embodying his uncle’s worst and best qualities can add something to the medical drama, thus making Lucas’s story in Grey’s Anatomy season 22 much more exciting.