Giacomo Gianniotti Predicts That ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Will End After Season 17

Giacomo Gianniotti believes that the end of Grey’s Anatomy is near.

The ending of the hit ABC drama has been a subject for several years. Many fans of the show have followed the journey of surgical resident-turned-chief of general surgery since the show premiered in 2005. Like its fans, Gianniotti shared with Us Weekly that he has his suspicions about when the show will have its series finale. He said he thinks Grey‘s will say goodbye after Season 17, which is set to take place in fall 2020. However, he said he isn’t completely certain because the show’s writers, showrunners, directors, etc., want to continue to tell stories at Grey Sloan Memorial.

“At the moment, we have one more season locked in and I feel pretty confident that that’s where it’ll end, I think, from the conversations that I’ve had with people,” Giannotti candidly said.

The medical drama has been known to pull from real medical cases and apply it to the show in a dramatized fashion. The show also uses real-world issues that are happening in society as inspiration for the stories of its doctors and patients. While medical and social news changes over the years, Giannotti said he can see how the show could continue telling these stories for years to come.

“We have a formula that’s really clear. We are a show that does a lot of political commentary. We’ve got real issues and there’s no shortage of issues coming up that need to be talked about,” Giannotti noted. “So as far as the writers are concerned, they could write it forever because there’s not enough small people in the world who don’t have a big voice that need a megaphone. We provided that year in and year out.”

If the show did decide to end, it would be a short run for Giannotti. The actor joined the series in 2015 during Season 11 as Dr. Andrew DeLuca. He then became a series regular in Season 12 and has been on the show ever since. Several of his cast members, including Justin Chambers, who recently left the show after playing Dr. Alex Karev on the series for 16 seasons, eventually moved on to work on other projects. Giannotti said that for the show’s central cast member, Ellen Pompeo, the actress is still “having a good time” playing Meredith Grey. He also shared that like all of the cast, Pompeo feels the show could come to a close soon. However, the series’ creator and former showrunner, Shonda Rhimes, has yet to share when the show will officially end.