ABC’s medical drama Grey’s Anatomy is one of the longest running TV shows in recent memory. The series is currently in the middle of Season 12, and it doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of stopping- especially after how successful Shonda Rhimes' TGIT has been thus far. Although we recently reported that Grey’s has been renewed for Season 13, many of the contracts are up for the cast. While only time will tell if all of the surgeons of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital will be back, it seems one of the major characters has already confirmed their return.
TV Line is reporting that Justin Chambers, aka the always moody Pediatric Surgeon Alex Karev, will be returning for the next season of Grey’s Anatomy. Fans of the series are sure to rejoice knowing that the bad boy with the heart of gold won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
This is pretty exciting news for Grey’s fans because Alex Karev has been a main character for all 12 seasons. Since Grey’s Anatomy has been running for so long, we’ve seen plenty of actors depart (usually by being killed off) over the last decade. Alex and Meredith are the only members of the original group of interns who is still working in the hospital, so they carry a lot of the heart of the show with their performances.
Justin Chambers’s role as Alex Karev has seen a ton of growth over the past twelve seasons, and has been one of the most popular doctors from the very start. Originally a bit of an antagonist, Meredith Grey saw the good heart behind his icy exterior, and began developing a strong friendship with him. Alex only continued to become more vulnerable as the show went on, especially considering his long line of disastrous romances. Izzy almost died and then left him (thanks Katherine Heigl), his Jane Doe girlfriend went bananas and got transferred to a psych facility, and Lucy the hot OB left the hospital when actress Rachael Taylor departed to star in the short-lived Charlie’s Angels reboot.
Since Alex will be returning for Season 13, at least fans of Grey’s Anatomy can rest easy knowing that he isn’t going to die some tragic accident. Because the main characters of Grey’s have their entire lives in Seattle, it’s hard to write characters off when an actor wishes to depart. After all, why would someone leave their friends, job, and family out of nowhere? The solution: kill them off and make all the viewers ugly cry. Even though fans have seen this happen time and time again, it never gets easier.
Luckily, we can now rest easy knowing that Karev will be back, and we’ll likely be seeing him and Jo fight for many episodes to come.
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursday nights on ABC.
