Season 21 is gearing up to be quite a season for Grey’s Anatomy. In addition to the shake-ups that ABC announced for the series’ new episodes, the network is now revealing that yet another character will make their way back into the halls of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Natalie Morales, who first debuted in the series as Dr. Monica Beltran in Season 20, is coming back for several episodes starting this October.
Monica Beltran is the new face of pediatric surgery on the series — a position that was previously occupied by fan-favorites Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers). Morales is set to return to the long-running series just a week after the new season premieres, and initially she’ll guest star in six episodes, with ABC indicating that she might come back for more, depending on how the story of the season develops. Considering that Dr. Beltran might be a love interest for Winston (Anthony Hill) or Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), chances are she’ll hang around a lot more.
Morales is joining a slate of familiar faces in Season 21. The most surprising one so far is Kali Rocha, who is reprising her role as Dr. Sydney Heron for the first time after seven years away. Additionally, fans were happy to discover that Dr. Grey (Ellen Pompeo) herself has also signed on to a hefty participation in Season 21. Even though Pompeo has officially left the show a couple of seasons ago, she keeps coming back for more and never stopped doing the episodes’ voice-over narrations.
There Are Plenty More Faces Returning to Grey’s Anatomy Season 21
Earlier this month, ABC also announced that Scott Speedman (Underwold franchise) extended his return as Nick Marsh in Season 21, and Jason George is re-joining the series as a regular cast member after the end of spin-off show Station 19. Last but not least, Michael Thomas Grant (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) is also joining the cast as a new gay chaplain. Even though it may seem like a lot, by now the series is pretty used to dealing with an extensive cast and juggling in surprising returns from fan-favorite doctors to shake things up.
With all the surprising exits and returns in the series, fans keep having a blast with Grey’s Anatomy, which reigns supreme as one of the most-streamed titles on Disney+ and other streaming platforms. Due to its popularity, the series’ creators and producers hinted more than once that the series still has a long way to go before it bows out. The series has just recently crossed the 400-episode mark.
ABC debuts Season 21 of Grey’s Anatomy on September 26.
Watch on Hulu