Ellen Pompeo is branching out from Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the beloved actress is set to executive produce a TV adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s best-selling book trilogy.
She will work alongside former Mad Men writers Andre and Maria Jacquemetton on the prospective series, which is considered a limited series.
The series is set to follow the novels’ plot, with viewers taking on the journey with Irene Steele, who, after her husband’s perplexing death, learns that he had been living a secret life with an entirely separate family on the Caribbean island of St. John.
As Irene desperately tries to put the puzzle pieces together, she is forced to make sense of whether this new locale is worth living in.
Pompeo is most well-known for starring on Grey’s Anatomy, the hit drama series that has been on the air since 2005.
She is also listed as an EP on both Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff Station 19.
No details have been revealed about Grey’s Anatomy’s future beyond this season, but Pompeo’s contract comes to an end this season, meaning that we could very well be gearing up for the conclusion of the series.
Pompeo admitted in a recent interview with Variety that the future is still very much up in the air.
“We don’t know when the show is really ending yet,” Pompeo told the publication. “But the truth is, this year could be it.”
Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes has been adamant about ending the series when Pompeo decides her time is up.
“Ellen and I have a pact that I’m going to do the show as long as she’s going to do the show,” the creator told E! News several years ago.
“So the show will exist as long as both of us want to do it. If she wants to stop, we’re stopping. So I don’t know if we’ll see 600 [episodes], but I want to keep it feeling fresh.”
“As long as there are fresh stories to tell and as long as we’re both excited about the stories being told, we’re in. So, we’ll see where that takes us.”
Given the direction the series is traveling, it certainly seems like the writers and producers are preparing for Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 to work as a conclusion if it needs to be the end.
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.