Ellen Pompeo Is Hinting That 'Grey's Anatomy' Will End After Season 16

They say that all good things must come to an end, but we were honestly starting to believe that Grey's Anatomy was exempt from that rule. The long-running series, which returns for its fifteenth season this week, may be winding down. At least, that's what star Ellen Pompeo seems to be hinting at in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.

During the interview, Ellen was was asked if she sees herself staying on beyond Season 16, when her current contract runs out. She wasn't definitively like, "HARD NO," but her answer also won't give fans much hope if they're looking for infinite seasons.

"I’m clearly not prepared right now to make any formal announcement about what my future is on the show, but I am really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories that we can tell," she said. "It’s about time that I mix it up. I’m definitely looking for a change."

Looking for a change. Told the "majority" of the stories there are to tell. Those definitely seem like hints that we should all start preparing now for an emotional finale in 2020.

Series creator Shonda Rhimes also spoke to EW, promising that when the time does come to say goodbye to Grey's, she's coming back to write the finale (she no longer runs day-to-day operations on the set).

"I have written the end of the show at least six times,” Rhimes said. "But we just don’t end. Every time I thought, ‘This is how the show should end,’ we’ve gone past those moments, so I’ve stopped trying. I have no idea now."

In May, Ellen hinted that the show was starting to head toward an ending and said that she and Shonda would make that call together when the time came.

"We’re getting there. Shonda and I will make that decision together," she told Us Weekly. “I think that one of the biggest lessons that this show has taught me and being on this show for so long has taught me, is that relationships do change. And they do grow. They take work. Like any marriage, friendship. You gotta put in the work. You have to accept other people’s flaws, and accept your own flaws and try to change and be a better person. But I think everything is worth the time and effort. And things get better."