Now, wouldn’t it be a lot easier on Sisyphus if he could take a little break and pass his boulder over to a friend? Not to compare a lucrative, uniquely stable television job to mythological torture, but there’s no denying that Ellen Pompeo has been carrying Grey’s Anatomy on her back for years, particularly as many of her original castmates have peeled off over time.
It’s her show, obviously—both as the series’ main character and as an executive producer—but after 17 years, no one can begrudge her desire to (at least temporarily) step away from this boulder of a medical melodrama. Enter Kate Walsh, who will pick up some of the slack while Pompeo works on her Untitled Orphan Project.
Walsh joined the cast in its first season before getting her own spin-off, Private Practice, which ran from 2007-2013. In the last season of Grey’s, Walsh returned as Dr. Addison Montgomery for a multi-episode arc. And now, she’s been bumped up to a recurring role for the 19th season, Variety reports.
A slew of new intern characters has been announced, played by Harry Shum Jr., Adelaide Kane, Alexis Floyd, Niko Terho, and Midori Francis. But an old guard member of the cast like Walsh will do a lot to cover the absence of Pompeo, who will reportedly only appear in eight episodes of the upcoming season. Also, to make sure the wheels don’t totally come off this thing, Pompeo’s classic narration will still feature at the beginning and end of every episode, according to Variety.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight in 2021, Walsh called her return to the series “completely surreal,” adding, “I knew it would be odd but it was so emotional, and so big and yeah, beyond, because when’s the last time you’ve ever gone back to a job that you started 18 years ago that you left 10 years ago? You know what I’m saying? There’s no infrastructure.” She’ll have to construct some for herself, because she’s got some big shoes to fill!