Grey’s Anatomy Renewed for Season 9, Original Cast May Leave

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Grey’s Anatomy has been renewed for a ninth season.

Five of the main cast members’ contracts are up and there’s no guarantee all of them will return for season nine.

According to TV Guide, Patrick Dempsey is leaving Grey’s after season eight to pursue a movie career.

“It’s gonna be my last,” Dempsey said to TV Guide. “I do not know what’s going to happen to the other characters, but for me it’s done.”

Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh and Justin Chamber’s contracts are also up at the end of the season.

“It might be the last hurrah for a lot of them; you never know,” Shonda Rhimes, executive producer, told TV Line. “Everybody has an individual choice to make and I get that.”

TV Guide also reports that Rhimes told TV Line that season eight would be the last for the original cast.

“I was invited for eight years — that was my contract — and no one has asked me for a day more,” Ellen Pompeo told TV Guide. “I know Shonda Rhimes has said the show will continue, but I wouldn’t presume that they want to continue with me. You don’t get dressed for the party if you don’t have an invitation.”

Pompeo expresses to TV Guide that she would be very happy to continue on Grey’s Anatomy, if she was asked to do so.

“I would never turn up my nose at Grey’s. As long as the stories are honest and truthful… and I feel there is material for us to be passionate about, it still beats a 9-to-5 job any day,” Pompeo said. “If I hear from the fans that they want us to keep going, then I would continue because we owe them everything.”

TV Guide reports that Sandra Oh, who plays Meredith’s best friends Christina, is likely to leave the show after season eight.

Pompeo had previously said to TV Guide that if Dempsey and Oh leave she would stay and continue Meredith’s story.

“It might be an interesting story for Meredith to have to deal with losing Cristina,” Pompeo said.

The fate of Justin Chambers, who plays Alex, is also undecided.  “I don’t know if I’ll go farther,” he told TV Line back in August 2011. “I don’t know if the show will go farther. When we get to that point, we’ll go from there.

No word yet if Chandra Wilson will be staying or leaving for season nine.

Rhimes told TV Guide that she has been trying to figure out scenarios for Dempsey leaving and Pompeo staying.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say that I lie awake at night wondering what would happen,” she said. “And I have some ideas. Do I love them? I don’t know yet. I’d prefer to think of them as Armageddon scenarios. There are no easy answers.”