‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Sandra Oh Has ‘Moved On,’ Will Not Return as Cristina Yang

Meredith Jacobs May 11, 2021, 2:45 pm

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Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang in Grey's Anatomy — Bob D'Amico / ©ABC / courtesy Everett Collection

Don’t expect anything on-screen beyond text messages from Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh).

Oh ruled out reprising her role on Grey’s Anatomy at any point in the future on the Los Angeles Times’ Asian Enough podcast. While she said she does “love” that she gets asked about a potential return, “I have moved on,” she stressed, urging fans to instead check her out in her current project, playing Eve Polastri on Killing Eve (returning for a fourth and final season on BBC America) and others like The Chair (coming to Netflix).

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“It’s very rare, I would say, to be able to see in such a way the impact of a character. In some ways, you do your work as a bubble and you let it go. I left that show, my God, seven years ago almost. So in my mind, it’s gone,” Oh explained of her Grey’s Anatomy character. “But for a lot of people, it’s still very much alive.”

Oh was part of the original Grey’s Anatomy cast when the ABC medical drama premiered in 2005. She left in Season 10.

Oh’s comments come as Grey’s has welcomed back two other original cast members in Season 17. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and George O’Malley (T.R. Knight, whose characters both have died, returned as part of scenes on a beach in Meredith’s (Ellen Pompeo) mind as she battled COVID. (Chyler Leigh’s Lexie Grey and Eric Dane’s Mark Sloan also popped up in such scenes.) Sarah Drew also returned as Dr. April Kepner this season, as part of Jackson Avery’s (Jesse Williams) exit storyline.

As we’ve watched the doctors of Grey Sloan battle the pandemic, Oh said she imagines her character “wickedly at the front line trying to solve the big problems,” including “the systematic [ones], not just the day in and day out.”