Grey's Anatomy Returning To Its Roots In Season 19, Says EP Krista Vernoff — And Bringing 3 Couples To A Crossroads

Maybe you've read: Grey's Anatomy's vitals are extremely good going into Thursday's Season 19 (!) premiere. (Our review here.) And a lot of the credit for that goes to the ABC drama's new class of residents and the possibilities that their hiring brings to the (operating) table. (More on them here.)

"This season is really about returning to the roots of the show," showrunner Krista Vernoff tells TVLine. "What can you do when you have five series-regular interns the way that we did in those early years? [Back then,] we wanted to focus on what it is to try and become a surgeon when you don't know anything — how frightening and life-and-death everything is.

"This new class," she adds, "allows us to get back to that."

The rookie doctors may be diamonds in the rough, but the quintet of familiar faces that plays them is made up of gems. "We spent a long time very carefully casting this group," says Vernoff. "I love all five of the actors and all five of the characters, and that's a really exciting place to start from."

While counting down the minutes until the ABC drama's return on Thursday (at 9/8c), read on for previews of what's in store for Addison, Bailey, Owen and Teddy, Winston and Maggie, and more.

With Ellen Pompeo going part-time (and appearing in just eight episodes), we'll be seeing a lot less of Meredith. But as the leading lady herself said in September, Grey's Anatomy is "going to be just fine without me." For her part, Vernoff knows that the OG's absence will be a terrible blow: "Ellen is a powerhouse, and Meredith is iconic." But the EP remains confident that the series will still be able to raise our blood pressure and break our hearts. "From the very beginning, it was an ensemble show," she says. "It's always had a tremendous cast of actors who can carry any amount of the story. So while we will desperately miss Ellen and Meredith, I think there's a lot of story to tell" for other characters.

Kate Walsh's alter ego "comes back as a part of her activism this season," Vernoff says. "We're telling a really powerful story about Addison and Bailey joining forces that is in turns funny and gut-wrenching." Along the way, we also "learn a little bit more about Addison's life back in Los Angeles."

When last we saw Leo and Allison's folks, they had resigned from Grey Sloan and were on the lam from the law. How soon will their fate be addressed? "We went back and forth on this in the writers' room for a long time," Vernoff says, "and what we came up with made us laugh so hard that what you're getting is an answer in the premiere as to what the past six months have been for Owen and Teddy. We also lean hard into the impact on their marriage of Owen's decision-making and also Teddy's decision-making. It is actually one of our favorite things that we're doing this season."

Though Jo and Link decided at the end of Season 18 to be friends without benefits, "the 'Will they or won't they?' of them is a little bit of a driving force this season," Vernoff reveals. "He'd had a big crush on her back in the day, and him telling her that opened a big Pandora's box of possibility for her. And then when she said, 'Look, I fell in love with you,' it opened the Pandora's box for him, but it was sort of too late because they were trying to protect their friendship. Now we're really asking, 'Is the friendship the thing that you protect at all costs, or do you take a chance on more?'"

... repent in leisure? As Season 18 came to a close, Maggie was beginning to wonder whether she and Winston had tied the knot too quickly — and that's not a question that can be answered overnight. "They were a pandemic love story, and the pandemic intensified and sped up everything," Vernoff notes. "So one of the questions we were asking last season was, 'What happens when you skip large portions of what would have been a traditional courtship and relationship and jump to the marriage?' You have to unpack what you skipped and get to know each other on a deeper level." And as the newlyweds will discover in Season 19, "that can be challenging."