This news is just what the doctor ordered: Kate Walsh is returning to “Grey’s Anatomy.”
The actor and the show have both announced she will rejoin the long-running ABC medical drama for the upcoming 18th season.
“It’s really happening. Dr. Addison Montgomery will see you shortly,” she captioned an Instagram video posted Thursday of herself. During the short clip, in which she partakes in the viral “Questions I Get Asked” trend, she says, “I bet you'd thought you’d seen the last of me.”
The show’s star, Ellen Pompeo, posted a response in the comments sure to stir up some intrigue: “Lets give them what they want…..quality TV drama.”
Walsh, who will appear in multiple episodes according to Deadline, also broke the news in a video that appears on the “Grey’s Anatomy” Instagram page, in which she said she’s happy to reunite with Pompeo, series creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes and everyone else affiliated with the show.
“Well, well, well, would you look who it is?” Walsh says in the clip. “That’s right, my loves. Dr. Addison Montgomery is coming back to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and I’m so excited to be home again, joining Shonda, Ellen and the rest of the incredible cast this season 18. Just wait until you see what she has in store for you.”
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this…” she then wrote in the comments section.
Rejoining the series, which will return Sept. 30, shouldn’t be a total shock for fans. Walsh has said she was interested in returning.
“I would love to,” she told the 3rd hour of TODAY in March. “It just would be a matter of how to do it and when.”
Walsh joined “Grey’s Anatomy” in the season one finale, when Pompeo's Meredith Grey was surprised to learn her love interest, Derek Shepherd, played by Patrick Dempsey, was married to Addison. Walsh remained on the show until she starred in the spinoff, “Private Practice,” which ran for six seasons from 2007 until 2013. She did appear on multiple episodes of “Grey's Anatomy” during that time.
Walsh is the latest “Grey’s Anatomy” star to scrub back in to the show. Dempsey returned last season in a dream sequence, as did T.R. Knight, Eric Dane and Chyler Leigh.