We all knew this day was coming, but at this point there’s no escaping it anymore. Today, ABC shared a featurette that lets fans know that the cast and crew of Station 19 is as sad as everyone else that the series is calling it quits. It reveals everyone’s tearful goodbye to the highly successful Grey’s Anatomy spin-off and has some cast members opening up about how they felt filming the very last episodes of the series.
In the behind-the-scenes featurette, Jaina Lee Ortiz (Girls Trip) says it all: No one is ready to say goodbye to Station 19. Jay Hayden (The Catch) jokes that he’ll have a hard time adjusting to the fact that he won’t be seeing Jason George‘s (Sunset Beach) face every day, and they all agree that doing the last table read, shooting their final scenes and bidding farewell to everyone will be brutal — that’s why boxes and boxes of tissues were handed around during the production of the two-part season finale.
At the same time, the emotional video is also a celebration of Station 19‘s legacy. The firefighter show started as a timid spin-off from tent pole ABC series Grey’s Anatomy and managed to find its own space within that universe. It helped characters like Ben Warren (George) and Stefania Spampinato (who plays Dr. Carina De Luca) continue to exist even after their arcs in Grey’s had wrapped, and the thrilling show was able to run for over one hundred episodes — something that’s pretty rare in the era of peak television.
Earlier this year, Grey’s Anatomy‘s new showrunner Meg Marinis revealed that she was “constantly on the phone” with Station 19 showrunners Zoanne Clack and Peter Paige. However, she didn’t give away what sort of crossover event we’ll witness by the end of the series — and which characters get impacted by it. Marinis did reveal that she’s kept close tabs on Ben Warren, though, since his fate directly impacts the life and career of Grey’s Anatomy‘s Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson).
Station 19 will air its penultimate episode this Thursday. Even though it’s pretty much a given that the series is going away for ever, fans won’t let it go quietly. Ever since the beginning of the year, the loyal fanbase started a massive #SaveStation19 campaign that appealed to the series’ showrunners. However, up until now it seems like ABC hasn’t budged from its decision, and since the network has been trimming some budgets over the last few months, it doesn’t look that Station 19 will be able to get an afterlife.
The series finale of Station 19 airs this Friday on ABC. Past seasons are streaming now on Hulu. Watch the emotional featurette above.
