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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 13: Will Justin Chambers, Kevin McKidd, And More Return?

By Alexandria Ingham
Published on: 23:07 PST, Jun 10, 2016

Grey’s Anatomy Season 13 will return to screens in fall 2016, but who will return with it? There were six contracts up for renewal after Season 12, and not all have agreed to return.

Sara Ramirez stated that she would leave after the Grey’s Anatomy Season 12 finale. Her character, Callie, had left for New York but didn’t quite get the goodbye fans expected. There was always the thought that she would return, but Ramirez decided that it was time to hang up the stethoscope and move on after a decade on the medical drama.

While fans were shocked, there were still plenty of others returning. The question was whether the other five would come back.

Ellen Pompeo was the next to make a decision, and she agreed to return as titular character Meredith Grey. She has definitely signed up for Season 13, and it is likely she will sign up for more if the show is picked up by ABC in the future. Pompeo has said that she will likely see the show out and then quit acting.

What about the others? Justin Chambers, Kevin McKidd, Chandra Wilson, and James Pickens Jr. all had contracts that were expiring at the end of Season 12. Will they return for Grey’s Season 13? Entertainment Weekly states that they will all return for Season 13.

Chambers, Wilson, and Pickens Jr. have all been part of the show since its conception. At one point, Chamber’s character Alex mentioned to Meredith that he believed he and Cristina Yang would be the only ones left, and Meredith believed it would be her and Yang. Yang did go on to run a Swiss company, but Meredith and Alex are the only two left of their original intern group from the very first season.

Pickens Jr. and Wilson’s characters, Richard and Bailey, have both changed over the years. Bailey was once known as the Nazi but has become a guide and friend to many of the characters now that they are no longer interns. Richard is no longer the chief of surgery but is still a guiding light in the hospital.

McKidd joined the cast in Season 5, becoming the trauma surgeon and love interest for Yang. He has remained even when there were storylines that could have seen him leave, and he helped the hospital grow after the plane crash and being sold after going bankrupt. He has gone from trauma surgeon to chief and back to trauma surgeon.

With the news that the five have signed new contracts, it means Grey’s Anatomy Season 13 will be able to continue in the way that it was originally intended for the most part. The only thing Shonda Rhimes has to change is Callie’s departure being permanent, rather than the temporary one she expected.

ABC has not confirmed how long the contracts will last. Most other years, the contracts have been renewed for two years, but that doesn’t mean the actors will have a job for the whole time. At the end of Season 10, Patrick Dempsey signed on for another two years, but his character, Derek Shepherd, was killed off during Grey’s Anatomy Season 11 in a shock decision that left fans devastated and angry. There are various rumors about the actions behind the scenes, but it is possible that this was completely agreed on between all parties necessary.

There is currently no confirmation date on when the show will air. It is likely to be the end of September or the start of October, as is normal for ABC. Right now, all but Callie will return to Grey’s Anatomy Season 13.

[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]

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