Grey’s Anatomy is getting an eighteenth season, The Hollywood Reporter reports Monday. Actress Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Gray) is reportedly getting a higher salary for her role in the new series.
Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey) and James Pickens Jr. (Richard Webber) return.
For a long time there was uncertainty about a new season of the hospital series. Pompeo has said he wants to focus on producing in the near future and series creator Shonda Rhimes has said that Grey’s Anatomy cannot continue without the actress.
Additionally, Pompeo was demanding more money for her role, something she would have talked about with producer Disney for a long time. The actress previously announced that she should be paid more for her work in the hospital series. At that time she was already the highest paid television actress with 20 million dollars (more than 16 million euros) a year.
Because the future of the series was uncertain, the writers wrote the last episode of the seventeenth series so that it could also be a series finale.
The eighteenth season of the series will start in the autumn. Also Station 19, a spin-off of Gray’s Anatomy on the life of a fire brigade, get a new season.