Shonda Rhimes Has No Idea How (or When) ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Will End

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With Season 21 rolling out episodes and a huge chance of getting renewed for Season 22, Grey’s Anatomy is getting closer and closer to hitting the historic landmark of 500 episodes made. No one expected the show to make it this far, not even the series creator herself, Shonda Rhimes (Bridgerton). But when will it all come to a close? Does Rhimes have a finish line in mind for the series? In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the writer and producer revealed that she has let go of any planning several years ago.

Rhimes no longer acts as showrunner for the long-running medical series, and several years ago she passed the baton for Betsy Beers, who then passed the task on to the show’s current showrunner Meg Marinis. However, Rhimes is still a producer and weighs in on every decision made. She revealed she is pretty excited with the Season 21 finale, but the conversation took a different turn when the topic was Grey’s Anatomy’s series finale — which so far has no date to happen. She stated:

“I have zero endings for Grey’s now. I mean, literally zero. Until season 8, I still had endings. And by the way, I felt like I ended the series several times. I was like, ‘This could be the finale, this could be it,’ but it wasn’t. So after a while I just started writing those things that I thought would happen at the end into the show, because it wasn’t ending.”

There Is “No End In Sight” For ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) in 'Grey's Anatomy'. — Image via ABC

Indeed, several plot points that you would normally see in a series finale have happened in Grey’s Anatomy. Most of its original cast members have left the show, including the title character played by Ellen Pompeo. However, ABC TKTK has spoken about the future of Grey’s Anatomy and was quite blunt when stating that there is “no end in sight” for the series. And that’s completely understandable: Grey’s Anatomy is still one of the most popular shows on ABC and in 2024 it was the most-streamed drama series across all streaming platforms. So fans aren’t tired of it, and the show is one of the go-to titles when viewers want to binge-watch something.

Back in early 2024, President of Disney Television Group Craig Erwich echoed Marinis’ thoughts and stated that Grey’s Anatomy “is as creatively strong as it’s ever been,” which might hint that the series still has a long road ahead of it. If the show gets renewed for Season 22, Marinis also teased that Pompeo will return for at least seven episodes, like she did in Season 21.

You can stream all episodes of Grey’s Anatomy on Hulu.

Grey’s Anatomy

Release Date: March 27, 2005
Network: ABC
Directors: Rob Corn, Kevin McKidd, Debbie Allen, Chandra Wilson, Allison Liddi-Brown, Jeannot Szwarc, Tony Phelan
Writers: Shonda Rhimes, Julie Wong, Jen Klein, Tameson Duffy, Meg Marinis