Spoilers for previously aired episodes of Grey’s Anatomy
Sarah Drew played Dr. April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy for nine seasons until she and Jessica Capshaw were abruptly written off in the 14th season finale. Sarah and Jessica’s exit somewhat coincided with Ellen Pompeo’s pay raise and there was speculation that they were cut to accommodate her raise, which Ellen Pompeo and producer Krista Vernoff denied. There was also fan speculation that Krista Vernoff didn’t want to write for those characters anymore when she returned to the show after several years away. Whatever happened, there were no hard feelings, because Sarah popped up again last year in the 17th season to help close out Jesse Williams’ storyline when he left the show. Sarah works pretty consistently in other TV series and TV movies, but Grey’s is definitely her biggest role and it’s been on forever so of course it came up when she was promoting her new Lifetime movie.

Switching gears, Drew spoke about former Grey’s Anatomy co-star Jesse Williams’ Broadway debut, Take Me Out, which finally comes to the stage this month. Though she’s hopeful she’ll carve out time in her schedule to make a trip to the Big Apple to see him in action, she shared a sweet story about a recent trip to New York City.

“It’s funny. Last week my son had winter break and I took him to New York to visit family and see some shows. And on our way to go get tickets to Aladdin, we passed by Jesse’s theater, so I went and snapped a little selfie and texted him!” she revealed. “I’m like, ‘Are you in the theater right now?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I hope I can make it. I hope my schedule allows for me to make it to see him shine.”

Drew returned for an episode in season 17 to help send Williams off and she didn’t rule out another return down the line when the series — already renewed for a 19th season — eventually signs off for good.

“Absolutely,” she said when asked about the possibility of a Grey’s return, revisiting her Williams reunion. “It was a beautiful experience. It felt so warm, welcoming. It felt like a full-circle moment of closing my story in a way that I didn’t honestly know I needed. So Grey’s Anatomy will always have my heart. They will always be my family, so I never rule that stuff out.”

ET Online

After killing off McDreamy, Grey’s stopped using character deaths as its primary exit vehicle.  I guess they finally realized that sometimes characters could just, like, take another job and move instead of dying in a horrible accident. I was an April Kepner fan and “JApril” shipper so I was disappointed when April’s exit included her marrying the man she’d left at the altar five seasons earlier while her ex-husband/co-parent/soulmate Jackson Avery looked on. It was a slapdash ending and didn’t seem true to the history and where the characters were at that point. Jackson definitely got a more thoughtful ending that made perfect sense for his character and bringing back April repaired the mistakes of her exit and brought more closure. It always made sense for those two characters to leave together, but Sarah was written off earlier for whatever reason and Jesse definitely had reasons to stay on the show. And no exit will be as bad as Justin Chambers’.

Is Grey’s really nearing the end? It was renewed for a 19th season and was the third most-streamed show of 2021. Aside from Sarah Drew, several other former stars have talked or teased potential returns before the series ends, including Jesse Williams, Jessica Capshaw, and Sara Ramirez. Since the 17th season, we’ve seen several returns of major characters both living and dead, so it would be great if the show could close out with appearances from major characters that are still alive so we can find out what they’ve been up to as well.

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