Grey's Anatomy will bid farewell to two emblematic characters

Careful, this article will contain spoilers for season 14 of Grey’s Anatomy.

If the fan recently enjoyed the renewal of Ellen Pompeo‘s contract for another two seasons, the delight faded quickly. We learned this week that Grey’s Anatomy‘s 14th season will have us bid farewell to two actresses and, therefore, two characters emblematic of the show. On the show for nearly a decade now, Sarah Drew and Jessica Capshaw’s contract with ABC was terminated.

Sarah Drew stated that she learned about that less than 48 hours before it was announced through the media and that she didn’t had time to process the information.The actress playing April Kepner said that she was as sad as the fans about this decision. Jessica Capshaw also declared being sad about her character’s disappearance but she thinks that Arizona “will continue to live on and on in all of our consciences and our imaginations.” She also said that it was a “rare privilege” to play Arizona Robbins and that she was “madly in love with playing her. Arizona Robbins is kind, intelligent, funny, insightful, bold, playful, fierce and really good at her job. She was one of the first members of the LGBTQ community to be represented in a series regular role on network television. Her impact on the world is permanent and forever.”

The show’s producers explained that this decision was a creative one. The showrunner of Grey’s Anatomy, Krista Vernoff, announed to Deadline that “As writers, our job is to follow the stories where they want to go, and sometimes that means saying goodbye to characters we love. It has been a joy and a privilege to work with these phenomenally talented actresses.” Shonda Rhimes, the show’s creator, wanted to pay tribute to the characters and the actresses on Instagram.