Grey's Anatomy

We’ve all been wondering about the end of Grey's Anatomy, so when we caught up with the show’s creator Shonda Rhimes at the ABC TCA All Star party we coulnd’t help but ask what she thought about the future of her medical drama.

“I know how the show is going to end,” she says. ”When that end is coming, I don’t know. It’s not my decision to make. (ABC Entertainment Group president) Paul Lee has said he wants the show to go on for 10 or 15 more years, which sounds hilarious to me, but you never know.”

While Shonda tells us she knows which cast members she has in mind for the ending, she hasn’t started thinking about how an early departure by the original cast would affect her plan. So rather than interrogate her about that ‘What If’ we asked about the upcoming ‘What If’ episode (Season 8, Episode 13: “If/Then”).

“I know people are very much obsessed with that,” she tells us. “We’ve been talking about it kind of a lot, but then one of our writers, Stacy McKee, came in and really pitched hard on the episode and was like, I want to do this. It wasn’t even like she could write it, but she was passionate about it.”

“We started talking about what would make it interesting, and I said, it’s only interesting is if we could see what happens, if Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) can become a bright and shiny person versus a dark and twisty person.”

As Wetpaint Entertainment previously reported, Katherine Heigl (Izzie Stevens) isn’t part of the “What If” universe, and now we can add another original to that tally.

“George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) is dead,” says Shonda, but then takes it back. “Well, you know what? In this universe, I don’t think George O’Malley is dead, but George O’Malley is, in fact, no longer at the hospital in this universe.”

In the real universe it’s about to be an intense spring for almost everyone involved.
“I think Meredith and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) as parents is going to be very, very interesting,” she tells us. “Cristina (Sandra Oh) and Owen (Kevin McKidd) are headed for a blow-up that they’ve been heading for since the beginning of the season. It’s going to be very interesting.”

“Poor Teddy (Kim Raver) is struggling to find her way out of grief which is going to be, I think, really moving and really poignant and beautiful, how she chooses to deal with all of that. We’re bringing back Catherine Avery (Jackson’s mom) who is played by Debbie Allen because the cast loves her so much. And we’re really focusing on Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) [and]his growth.”

Considering Alex Karev’s M.O. for the past seven years, let’s hope she means growth in the spiritual sense!

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