Could ‘Grey's' continue without Ellen Pompeo? The show's boss hopes it doesn't come to that

Los Angeles Times

07-03-2025

While other 11-year-olds in the '90s may have been preoccupied with cruising the mall or playing video games after wrapping up homework, precocious Meg Marinis was often hovering over the family's clunky electronic word processor, punching out 'ER' scripts like an inspired TV writer on deadline.
'Scripts' may be an overstatement, the current showrunner of 'Grey's Anatomy' clarifies. 'It might better be called fan fiction,' she says inside her office on the Prospect Studios lot in Los Feliz. With two older sisters, Marinis often watched TV shows that were slightly inappropriate for her age — like 'Friends,' 'Beverly Hills, 90210,' 'The X-Files.' But she really loved the workplace drama and the medical aspect of 'ER,' often crafting her own flashback-heavy episodes and exploring the angsty romance potential between characters like Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) and Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) or Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) and Doug Ross (George Clooney).
'I got so into the [medical] terminology. I thought it was so cool, I don't know why,' she says. 'And the way that everything was on the move and quick and alarms would be blaring. It was so exciting and, in the middle of it, there were love stories. It wasn't just one thing.'
Maybe manifestation was at work. These days, she's busy helming the current medical drama stalwart over on ABC. 'Grey's Anatomy' returned Thursday for the second half of its 21st season in dramatic style — an armed robbery at a convenience store threatened Jo's (Camilla Luddington) pregnancy, while Teddy (Kim Raver) and Owen's (Kevin McKidd) marriage is facing challenges. This week, Marinis has been putting the finishing touches on the season finale, which will begin shooting later this month.
Keeping the stories flowing on TV's longest-running medical drama can be an intricate challenge, not unlike the procedures that take place at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, the show's setting. The series also boasts a large ensemble cast, and the presence of its namesake character, played by Ellen Pompeo, was scaled back. But Marinis has trained for it. She's been with the show nearly as long as the remaining original cast members. She was hired right out of college as a writers' production assistant as the drama was heading into its third season. She worked her way up, becoming a writer's assistant and medical researcher before being promoted to staff writer. She was tapped to oversee the show ahead of its 20th season, which launched in 2024.
At her office (and in a separate video call), Marinis spoke about Pompeo's future with the show, the chatter surrounding new medical drama 'The Pitt' and which 'Grey's' character will do something they've never done before. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Starting with Season 19, Ellen Pompeo's screen time was scaled back as she pursued other projects, mainly Hulu's upcoming 'Good American Family.' It was announced she'd appear in at least seven episodes this season. Is that still the case and will we see more of her?
We've aired three with her, so you at least have four more and I'm just gonna let y'all continue to watch to see what else you get. With Ellen, we always want her to be here as much as she she can and she wants. That's an open conversation moving forward. After this season, we have yet to have those conversations because her show is about to premiere. But we want her here as much as possible because she is the essence of the show; her voiceover, it is still in every episode. What we did this last season, we tried to look at her episodes as groups of episodes because it's more fun to tell an arc with Meredith, rather than a bunch of different one-offs. Meredith's relationship with Nick [Scott Speedman] is really important to me. I love her being able to find love after Derek [Patrick Dempsey]. Scott Speedman is amazing. He's so game to come here and play with us whenever he's able to. It's just staying true to her character as she's evolved over over 20 years and how she interacts with the new characters that we've brought, is really interesting to me.
But discussions haven't started yet about how much she'd appear for a possible Season 22?
Those conversations haven't quite started yet. I believe that there's something in place [from her previous deal] for her already, but I'm not completely aware of it. My feeling is that it would probably be around the same amount as this season, and it also just depends on her schedule.
Can you imagine 'Grey's' without Meredith? Her name is in the title, her story set this world in motion.
I hope that we don't ever have to see a 'Grey's' without Meredith every now and then. We have an amazing cast alongside Ellen Pompeo. I think our episodes without her are are just as strong, but it's just so nice to hear her voice with the voiceovers. But I also feel that even when she's not in the episodes, it feels like she can be there. We constantly reference her. She's obviously come out as a world-class surgeon out of this hospital. Bailey [Chandra Wilson] and Richard [James Pickens Jr.], when they're dealing with a new class of interns, they invoke that spirit of Meredith that anytime they think that they've got a difficult intern, they remember who they brought up and what she became. We still have [Derek's family] Amelia Shepherd [Caterina Scorsone] and Lucas Adams [Niko Terho]. The essence of Meredith never disappears.
What can you tease about Meredith's Alzheimer's research? It's unclear how she'll be involved after upsetting Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) with her shift in focus.
We're definitely going to pick that back up again in one of the first few episodes when we return. I think people are gonna be very happy to see where it goes. We wrote this a while ago, but we go into some of the issues that researchers are facing right now, with securing funding and what you choose to center your research on really has an effect on whether you get money or not. We're going to see Meredith struggle with those challenges.
What about her personal life? Safe to assume that Nick is the one?
Well, he's the one after Derek. A lot of discussion happens because everybody is always asking, 'Will she get married again? Will she do this again?' And I don't think it's so much about marriage, but the fact that the two of them have now merged their lives together at the end of last season. I think that's a sign for fans to think that he is the one. He also is somebody who respects the life that she had before him and he's never going to try to replace that. He might like to get married, but he knows who Meredith is and he's never going to push that on her. I also like how he challenges her in ways that people since Derek have not, which also makes me think that he is her equal. He's going to push back when he feels like he's being pushed away.
The show has tackled timely topics before, whether it's immigration, abortion, COVID. When you see some of the healthcare-related headlines under this current administration, particularly Medicaid, are you thinking about whether these issues are worth exploring next season?
We always look at it from the doctor's point of view. Our fans have all sorts of different perspectives and opinions and affiliations. We always take the stance of 'what are doctors going through these days?' When we did the COVID season, we told that story completely from a doctor's point of view. We didn't talk about politics, we didn't talk about who was right, who wasn't right. We just showed the effect that the pandemic had on our doctors and the isolation and loneliness that they had to go through. We'll do the same thing if we see headlines we want to explore.
Heading into this mid-season premiere, I was worried where this pregnancy scare was going to go because Jo has endured a lot. Her babies are fine. But was there a version where she lost one or both babies?
It was definitely pitched and I said, 'No, she's not losing those babies.' I'm interested in playing the reality of how difficult multiples are and so that's why we did that story the way we did because that is a common procedure that many women go through. I want to also respect the reality. I don't think it's going to be a full-term pregnancy with those babies. Is she out of the woods? I wouldn't say yes, because she's a woman pregnant with twins.
What's going on with Teddy, Owen and Cass Beckman (Sophia Bush)? Would you call it a love triangle?
I'm very excited for the fans to see the back half of the season because we follow that story more closely. I'm someone who loves to create the biggest mess possible in the stories and then I think the writers are like, 'Oh great, she's tangled us in some knot again that we can't figure it out.' But it's a 21-season show. We have to make mess in order to to keep it interesting and different. This is something we really haven't done before on our show with a marriage, at least. I also think that the scenes that Kim and Kevin are performing are so real and vulnerable and raw, and they have no time in their lives to prioritize themselves and their relationship because they have kids and their jobs. We're seeing kind of the consequences of that.
Your first season as showrunner was delayed and truncated as a result of the dual Hollywood strikes. In your second season at the helm, the recent wildfires in Los Angeles shut down production. How was it to lead a show in a time like that?
That Tuesday, we were all working here. Everyone was staring at their phone. A lot of people left before we wrapped on Tuesday that lived in Altadena and Pasadena to make sure everything was OK. Then at 4:00 in the morning, I was sitting there and I was watching the news and I thought, 'We can't go to work.' So, at 5 a.m. I started texting the line producer and I said, 'Do we have a plan?' And they said, 'What do you want to do?' I thought, I don't think we can work. I called Shondaland at 5:00 in the morning. Luckily, I got my exec over there on the phone. They were all having conversations, but as we got closer to that 6:45 a.m. rehearsal, I was like, 'I think I just have to say no.'
We quickly contacted everyone and stopped and we heard that other shows had done the same thing. There was this immense pressure of 'am I all of a sudden blowing thousands and thousands of dollars by us not working?' But I can't ask my crew to leave their homes and their families. Then we started getting reports that some of our crew members had lost their homes, which was awful. That Sunday, they said that people can return to work on Monday and I asked us to wait one more day because I just think we needed to mobilize and figure out how we could help our crew members who lost homes. Thankfully, we were [in a position where] it wasn't about making air dates for us. We called the crew back the Tuesday [after the start of the fires]. We had an easy day. Debbie Allen and I spoke to the crew at the beginning of the day. We hired a therapist to come to set so that people could speak to her. I think it really helped calm everybody just to have normalcy.
What is the challenge of taking over a show that's been on for two decades?
I feel better about it this year now that I've done one season. The pressure is immense. You're taking Shonda Rhimes' baby and taking care of it for her when she's built it to be an industry icon. And also just the immense pressure from the fans — making the stories feel fresh and exciting after 20 years; not repeating yourself. And just the pressure of being the leader of the show because there's not really a day where you can hide in your office and be sad about the fires. You have to build up all your strength because you really set the tone and if you seem in control, your crew's going to feel safe.
Because of budget trims, you were tasked with having to slim the cast down and scale back screen time for some veteran cast members. How did you approach that?
It was several conversations with Shonda. She came here and spoke to the cast with me and helped explain what was going on. They completely understood that when she and I spoke to them together, they knew it wasn't something that we wanted to do, that it was just the state of the industry. It was one of the worst moments of of my job, knowing the climate of what's happening, and I love every single character here and nobody wants to make that phone call.
'Grey's' has endured as others in the genre have come and gone. When you see something like 'The Pitt' become this drama that has people talking, what do you take from that at this stage in 'Grey's' run?
There's a couple of things — you can't help but think, 'Oh, what kind of stories are they telling? Are they telling cooler stories than we are?' I really want to watch 'The Pitt,' I'm waiting until hiatus because I do love medical shows, but I try not to watch them when I'm writing just to stay completely focused on 'Grey's.' I don't want to compete or compare. They're all different. The interest means that people still like medical shows. They're still relevant.
The life 'Grey's' has on TikTok is pretty amazing. I will never not stop to watch a video of someone filming their friend or significant other reaching the George O'Malley episode for the first time.
I think it's a testament to Shonda Rhimes and what she created with those original characters — watching them grow through their career. Everybody can identify with starting your first job and not knowing what you're doing and not making a lot of money and not having time for relationships and your best friend is your co-worker. It's so fun to be able to see people relive those moments or live those moments for the first time. I think that there's something comforting in a show that's been on for so long, that you can always turn to 'Grey's Anatomy.' There is a writer's thread where they text things [like the TikToks]. There was a meme that was like 'we're gonna see the end of democracy before the end of 'Grey's Anatomy.''
You're currently putting the finishing touches on the season finale. Is there something you can tease now that will make sense once we watch it?
Teddy will do something she's never done before.