'Grey’s Anatomy' Fans Are Worried After Patrick Dempsey’s New Interview

• Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey (a.k.a. "McDreamy") was recently asked by ET Canada about the future of the medical drama.
• After hearing Patrick's response, some fans got nervous.
• Grey's Anatomy season 17 returns to ABC on March 11, 2021.

While Grey's Anatomy continues on with its winter hiatus, Patrick Dempsey has been busy talking to the press about season 17 and his role in it.

This fall, Patrick surprised everyone by reemerging in the season 17 premiere during Meredith (Ellen Pompeo)'s dream as she battled a severe case of COVID-19. Of course, this was a huge deal for Grey's fans, especially considering that Patrick's character, Derek, died back in season 11.

Reflecting on his shocking return in the premiere episode, Patrick told ET Canada this week that everyone was "nervous" about someone spoiling the big surprise while filming the dream scene. Luckily though, the cast and crew was able to keep the secret.

"It was really nice to see everybody," Patrick recalled to the outlet. "The intention was right, we really wanted to bring awareness to get people to wear masks to follow the science and with that energy that sort of brought us into production in a really positive way."

When asked about the show beyond season 17, Patrick gave a pretty vague answer: "It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months."

Some who saw the clip of the interview on YouTube took Patrick's cryptic response as a warning that season 17 might be the end of the show. "He knows something... and I have a feeling it's bad news," one fan wrote while others "liked" the comment. "NOOOOO!! is this really gonna be the last seasoooon," another asked. "I think there’s going to be a season 18 but it does feel like the last season," someone else responded.

At the moment, we don't know for sure if season 18 is confirmed. In an interview with Variety last fall, Ellen made it seem like the 16-year-long show could be coming to a close soon-ish.

"We don’t know when the show is really ending yet,” she said. "But the truth is, this year could be it."

She later said: "I mean, this is the last year of my contract right now. I don’t know that this is the last year? But it very well could be."

That said, it doesn't sound like ABC is ready to pull the plug. ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke told Deadline that "Grey’s Anatomy will live as long as Ellen is interested in playing Meredith Grey. ... We will let her lead the pace on that."

Plus, Chandra Wilson, who plays Miranda Bailey, also doesn't think the end is super near.

"I know from a creative standpoint there have been many 'This is how the season would end' conversations and then they all end up [not happening] because of a myriad of reasons," Chandra told Entertainment Tonight in December. "Because the network's not ready, the studio's not ready, the fanbase isn't ready, the numbers are too good, all of those things. Collectively, they've decided we're not going to put an end on it. We're just going to wait and see."

At least there's that?