Grey’s Anatomy has officially been confirmed to return this fall! The long-running medical drama wrapped up its 21st (!) season consisting of 18 episodes with an explosive finale on May 15. The ending was the culmination of several week’s worth of tension that came to a head in a literal explosion that might have left one or more people dead. We won’t know for sure until this fall.
During the Disney Upfront, ABC unveiled their fall schedule, providing us with a peek at what the 2025-2026 television season will look like. Grey’s Anatomy will return to its Thursday night slot at 10 p.m. ET, which makes sense given that the show performs well there. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right? The series will cap off a 9-1-1 block that includes the parent series and the newly ordered spinoff, 9-1-1: Nashville, which, funnily enough stars Grey’s Anatomy vet Jessica Capshaw. Other popular ABC shows like Will Trent and The Rookie will be held until 2026.
Like season 21, the upcoming season 22 is expected to run for 18 episodes with star and executive producer Ellen Pompeo returning to play Meredith Grey, though we’ll see how many episodes she appears in as she’s limited her role for the past few seasons. At the end of season 21, Meredith made a new deal with Catherine to work in the hospital as a general surgeon during the summers, so it’ll be interesting to see if that allows for Pompeo to return in a larger role if she wishes.
Apart from Pompeo’s return, the only other character that we know is safe going into season 22 is Ben Warren, played by Jason George. Series showrunner Meg Marinis previously confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that these two characters will be fine, but everyone else’s fate amid the hospital explosion is still up in the air, especially that of Atticus “Link” Lincoln (Chris Carmack) who just married Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington) and learned that she’s pregnant with twin girls. Jo and Link get to spend some together in a supply closet before all hell breaks loose.
Unfortunately, several major characters were still on the operating floor when the explosion occurred, namely Link and Bailey, and Marinis’s comments make it sound like many other surgeons could be affected as she clarifies that she cannot confirm “anyone is necessarily safe,” except Meredith and Warren. So any one of our beloved favorites could wind up on the chopping block and become the latest casualty of Grey Sloan.
The showrunner also said they don’t plan to add any major new roles to the show in season 22 because the cast is already quite large, that could mean they’re not planning to permanently kill anyone off, but I’d be surprised if there weren’t some serious injuries.
