One of the stars of Grey's Anatomy is opening up about his character's fate after being fired in the most recent season.
Harry Shum Jr., who plays Dr. Benson "Blue" Kwan, told E! News that he doesn't know what the future holds for his character in Grey's Anatomy season 23.
He said, "I'm just as much in the dark as audiences. But to me, it's a hope of: Do audiences want to see him go or do they want to see him go back to the hospital?"
"I'm just as much in the dark as audiences. But to me, it's a hope of: Do audiences want to see him go or do they want to see him go back to the hospital?"
While the Grey's Anatomy season 22 finale largely revolved around the bridge collapse, as well as Owen Hunt and Teddy Altman's farewells amid Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver's exits from the show, Dr. Kwan's storyline came to a head in the episode prior when Dr. Webber fired him.
Earlier in the season, he used an experimental drug on a patient, even though it hadn't been approved by the FDA. When Dr. Miranda Bailey discovered the truth, she tried to cover for Kwan, but Webber eventually figured out what really happened and confronted him.
Aside from Kwan's firing, Bailey was ordered not to take part in any surgeries in the OR, which she defied. In the finale, Kwan was able to help out in the aftermath of the bridge collapse, despite being fired.
Shum Jr. believes that even though Kwan made a decision that warranted his firing, his heart was in the right place. Kwan is still a talented doctor, and it's better that he was reprimanded for making a mistake rather than for being inept at his job.
As the actor explained, "I think it's good to see the doctors when they do make a mistake, but also with good intentions. It wasn't just because he was a bumbling mess."
"I think it's good to see the doctors when they do make a mistake, but also with good intentions. It wasn't just because he was a bumbling mess. It was very motivated in making sure that someone got to be able to choose life over death."
Before joining Grey's Anatomy, his most high-profile role was on the hit musical dramedy Glee. He appeared in every single season as Mike Chang, first in a recurring capacity, then as a main cast member.
After Glee ended in 2015, Shum Jr. appeared in movies like All My Life, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, Crazy Rich Asians and Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the TV show Shadowhunters.
In 2022, he joined the ensemble cast of Grey's Anatomy, as Kwan began working as an intern at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital before becoming a surgical resident.
Numerous doctors and medical professionals have come and gone from Grey's Anatomy over the years, whether as a result of being fired, quitting, dying or some other reason. The most recent departures were from McKidd and Raver in the Grey's Anatomy season 22 finale. So far, they are the only confirmed cast members leaving the show this year.
As the producers and writers start mapping out the storylines for Grey's Anatomy season 23 (and taking into account the budget, which was the reason for McKidd and Raver's exits), other actors may leave as well.
Shum Jr. is in the dark over what the future holds for his character. If he does stay on the show, that would likely indicate that Webber plans to reinstate Kwan at the hospital. Until more details are revealed, though, no character is safe.
Grey's Anatomy season 23 will premiere in fall 2026 on ABC.
20 Years Later, 'Grey's Anatomy' Needs To Stop Expanding
Once upon a time, the newest addition to the Grey's Anatomy roster felt like a special occasion, and there were various reasons for this, particularly the fact that someone could potentially die in increasingly ridiculous ways. But one of the biggest reasons was how well the show conveyed who the main characters were as individuals compared to virtually all other shows on network television.
Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), and George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) built a strong connection with audiences throughout the first several seasons of the show. While all the medical calamities were very entertaining, they were ultimately worth watching only because they affected the lives of the central characters. As a result, when looking forward to ABC's Grey's Anatomy spin-off, it doesn't feel as exciting as it probably should.
The untitled series, co-created by Shonda Rhimes and current Grey’s showrunner Meg Marinis, will move the franchise to rural West Texas for the first time. Instead of centering on an established Grey’s character like Private Practice did with Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) or Station 19 did with Ben Warren (Jason George), this series will reportedly focus on an entirely new group of doctors.
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Already Feels Like a Different Show Than the One Fans Fell in Love With
Katherine Heigl, TR Knight, and Sandra Oh in an episode of Grey's Anatomy
Grey’s Anatomy has survived longer than almost anyone expected. It can be quite hard for a network drama to last upwards of 20 seasons, especially when it’s based on a rotating cast. Nonetheless, the amount of time a show has been on air and its continuing imaginative flow differ vastly. The original magic of the show stemmed from the comedic representation of dysfunctional, yet loving relationships and genuine emotional stories. Longtime fans of the show think that, as a whole, it has changed since it first began airing. The medical cases mattered more, but they also played a part in these characters' lives. The show struck a balance between that and never losing sight of the interns trying to survive impossible hours while ruining each other’s lives in on-call rooms.
Nowadays, it just seems like Grey's is trying to redo all of that. The show still knows how to manufacture cliffhangers, complete with explosions, hostage situations, near-death experiences, and surprise pregnancies, but there’s a growing sense that the series is repeating emotional beats instead of building toward anything meaningful. That’s part of why so many fans point to earlier seasons as the show’s natural endpoint. Some argue that Season 10 would have been the right place to stop after Cristina’s departure, while others think the COVID-focused Season 17 could have worked as a surprisingly poignant conclusion. There are even viewers who believe Season 14’s wedding-centered finale, “All of Me,” gave several core characters the closest thing the series has ever had to a satisfying ending. Instead, Grey’s kept going. And now, years after Pompeo stepped back from being the show’s full-time lead, ABC is preparing to expand the universe even further.
‘Private Practice’ Worked Because It Had a Reason To Exist
The cast of Private Practice in a promotional image.
Private Practice made sense because Addison was one of the franchise’s most beloved characters. The show also had a clear identity separate from Grey’s Anatomy. It traded Seattle’s chaotic surgical energy for a more intimate, slower-paced character drama in Los Angeles. Whether viewers loved it or not, it justified its existence almost immediately. On the other hand, Station 19 had a harder time carving out its own personality, but at least it still felt connected to the larger Grey’s world through familiar characters and frequent crossovers.
This new series doesn’t have either of those components just yet — news did just break, but where will the connections come from? Right now, the pitch mostly sounds like “Grey’s, but make it Texas.” That may change once casting details and storylines emerge, but it was the first impression fans got. A franchise can only expand so many times before audiences start noticing the machinery behind it.
ABC is turning nearly all of its biggest scripted dramas into franchises. 9-1-1 now has Nashville, The Rookie is getting The Rookie: North. One of the only ones missing is Grey's. Network television has become obsessed with expandable universes because recognizable IP is safer than launching something original from scratch. Viewers and advertisers know the name, and the network already knows there’s a built-in audience, but television history is full of franchises that kept growing long after the creative spark faded.
The Bigger Problem Is What the Spinoff Says About ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Dylan Young (Kyle Chandler) carefully guiding Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) through removing a bomb in Grey's Anatomy.
What makes the timing of this announcement especially strange is that Grey’s Anatomy itself is reportedly receiving reduced episode orders for budget reasons, so while the flagship series gets smaller, the franchise keeps getting bigger. ABC clearly still sees enormous value in Grey’s Anatomy as a brand. The ratings remain solid, and the streaming numbers are strong because viewers have been tuning in to the show for numerous reasons over the course of 20 years, including as a habit, out of loyalty or nostalgia, or through an emotional connection with the show's veteran characters.
However, a show can continue to survive, sometimes for a very long time, but not necessarily have a chance to evolve. The medical drama genre has taken on a whole new approach since Grey's Anatomy began airing in 2005. The success of HBO Max's The Pitt, among others, relies heavily on the relatable realism and the emotional exhaustion that many viewers experience after watching Grey's, as well as Grey's original "glossy" style appearing more and more like an extreme version of reality TV, while maintaining some of its original elements (which was a huge part of the show's original appeal).
Yet it is hard to ignore that we, as viewers, currently see Grey's generating momentum towards a franchise rather than creative urgency. This does not indicate that the new spin-off will undoubtedly be a failure; after 20 years, Grey's has proven its critics wrong. Texas could bring a refreshing change of pace to the series. Perhaps a new group of doctors will strike a similar chord with viewers, just as they once did with Meredith and Cristina or George and Izzie.
It would just be nice if Grey's Anatomy just ended as we know it and aired reruns of Seasons 1-10. So many people would be here for that.
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