It’s back to the basics for the medical team at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital.
As Shondaland continues to push out hours of new content for the ABC fall season, Ms. Shonda Rhimes herself has even more planned for the cast and crew of the acclaimed Grey’s Anatomy staff. Actress Kelly McCreary (who has played Meredith’s half-sister Maggie for almost two seasons) tells TVGuide.com that Ms. Rhimes is set to explore the characters of Meredith (played by Ellen Pompeo), Bailey (Chandra Wilson), Alex (Justin Chambers), and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) for the thirteenth season.
Ms. McCreary goes on to tell TVGuide.com, “After such a long period of time and so many new people coming in and out, they remain the foundational characters of the show,” she says. “We’re gonna be spending some more time with them to check in with where they are.”
Grey’s Anatomy has been ABC’s go-to primetime drama series since 2005. In the past decade, it’s normal for cast members and crew to have come and gone, but the change from season 1 to season 13 might be jarring to a casual viewer. During the show’s first season, nine cast members were graced with star billing; unlike the show’s twelfth season, which featured a cast of sixteen actors, with only four remaining from the original cast.
As the show heads into their third double-digit season, the reason for the “original” focus seems obvious. The ratings have taken a slight hit from their glory days, and it seems a logical move to return to the characters that won the show so much acclaim in the first place.
And these original four members still have a few emotional places to dive into for their upcoming season. The character of Meredith only recently began her sisterly relationship with Kelly McCreary’s character, Maggie, and there has already been a betrayal of trust as Maggie discovers that Meredith and Riggs are together. The character of Bailey will continue to try and sort out her married life, but per the laws of Shondaland, I’m confident that the audience should expect some heartbreak in store.
Of course, even with this focus change, we’ll still be able to see our new cast favorites. Sarah Drew and Jesse Williams’ characters still have co-parenting struggles to face, so we can be sure to glue ourselves to the television to live vicariously through their tumultuous relationship.
The latest installment of Grey’s Anatomy is set to premiere on Thursday, September 22nd.