When Will ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 17 Pick Up?

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Get ready for a bit of a time jump when Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 begins.

The new episodes pick up “a month and a half into full COVID, so it’s going to take place a little bit beyond where we left off,” Giacomo Gianniotti, who plays Dr. Andrew DeLuca, told ET.

In terms of filling in the gaps in the story, “we might have some flashbacks. We might have some things where we’re referencing last season.” Filming is set to start in September, but that could change, as it already has; they were previously looking to begin this month.

While he hasn’t read a script yet, he does have some sort of idea of what viewers will see on-screen, just in terms of keeping the actors safe. “We’re going to be wearing full [personal protective equipment] of course, as we’re going to take place in coronavirus on the show when we start the season. All of our characters will be justifiably protected,” Gianniotti explained. Because they play doctors, “we’re uniquely lucky that we get to wear PPE.”

(ABC/Kelsey McNeal)

Grey’s recently promoted Richard Flood, who plays Dr. Cormac Hayes, to series regular, suggesting that we’ll see more of Dr. Meredith Grey’s (Ellen Pompeo) love triangle in Season 17. With his character the other part of it, Gianniotti expects that as well.

Last season, DeLuca and Meredith’s relationship hit a rough patch, and as it ended, he was going through quite a bit in terms of his mental health. (The firefighter spinoff Station 19 appeared to confirm he’s bipolar, through a conversation between his sister, Stefania Spampinato’s Dr. Carina DeLuca, and her girlfriend, Danielle Savre’s firefighter Maya Bishop.) According to Gianniotti, that may have opened the door for Hayes to be “much more desirable and stable and more of a compatible partner” for Meredith.

Grey’s Anatomy, Season 17, Fall 2020, ABC