no, katherine heigl's izzie stevens won't be headed to the hospital in the sky like tr knight's george o'malley, but we will be seeing significantly less of the grey's anatomy doc this upcoming season. as part of her burgeoning film career, katherine heigl has requested a leave of absence from the show in order to film life as we know it, a romantic comedy she is also producing alongside her mother. katherine will be mia for 5 episodes this season, entertainment weekly reports, which will probably coincide with meredith's exit, aka ellen pompeo's maternity leave. that means grey's will be both izzie and meredith-less half-way through the season. this is the first time that katherine heigl's movie schedule has directly impacted filming on the show that gave her a career, the first in what is sure to be a number of signs that she will leave the show permanently sooner rather than later. how will two major character absences be explained? e! reports that seattle grace will be merging with cross-town rival mercy west this season, meaning the hospital will be double the size and with double the drama. as part of the merger, the staff has to be downsized - and izzie is the first casualty. yep, dr. stevens is getting fired. the hospital merging chaos is also the background for meredith's disappearance; rather than getting fired, she'll simply fade into the background as some of mercy west's doctors take the forefront. three new faces we'll be seeing are robert baker, jesse williams and nora zehetner, pictured below.
but, don't worry - you won't be completely meredith-less during that time period. taking a cue from the hills, ellen pompeo is recording meredith footage that can be used throughout the episodes where she's not a major player, much like lauren conrad filmed reaction shots for various scenarios before her mtv contract was up. plus, the introduction of these new characters is a move by the producers to recreate er-like success, keeping new faces coming so that in a few seasons they'll be familiar, even if the entire original cast is gone. there are also rumors that patrick dempsey's mcdreamy will go missing when meredith and izzie return in order for him to film a movie. welcome to the new grey's anatomy. hopefully this season will be a good test for the behind the scenes crew to figure out the future of the show. because, if they don't, grey's is sure to take a nose-dive.
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