Grey’s Anatomy season 19 spoilers: Another family member cast!

As we get ourselves closer and closer to Grey’s Anatomy season 19, it is clearer than ever that this will be 100% an ensemble show. Meredith Grey has been our lead, but we know that she’ll be leaving after eight episodes. This means that other people are going to step up to the plate, and that includes some newcomers.

Odds are, you’ve heard already that there are multiple new surgical residents coming on board the show this time around. That includes Alexis Floyd as Simone Griffith, and we have a little more news now about her extended family.

According to a report from Deadline, Marla Gibbs of The Jeffersons fame has been brought on board the medical drama for an arc as Joyce, Simone’s grandmother. Here’s what we know about Simone herself, based on the character description: She is a “funny, whip smart, high achiever with a complicated family dynamic who grew up in Seattle, but never wanted to work at Grey Sloan because of a painful personal history with the hospital.” If anyone is going to know more about this “painful personal history,” it’s going to be Joyce.

If we are meant to get invested into some of these new characters, it has to be pretty early on — it’s one of the reasons why we don’t mind having this arc for Simone this early. The show will of course have to balance this out with about a dozen other storylines given the overall size of this cast, but we do believe that they will figure that out. They have, after all, managed to do that before.

Remember that the season 19 premiere is unfortunately not this week; instead, you are going to have a chance to see it one week from tomorrow.

Related – Get some more news on the start of this season

What do you most want to see when it comes to Grey’s Anatomy season 19?

Do you like that there’s personal insight coming on a lot of these new characters? Be sure to share right now in the comments! Once you do just that, come back for some other updates you don’t want to miss. (Photo: ABC.)