Fans thought this could imply that Heigl would be returning as a part of Meredith's 'COVID dream.'
A friendly fan GIF or a potential Grey's Anatomy spoiler? Ellen Pompeo is continuing to toy with fans' emotions as it was teased following Thursday night's episode that "another person from [Meredith's] past returns."
Ahead of Thursday's episode, Pompeo tweeted a GIF of herself in character as Meredith Grey goofing off with Katherine Heigl in character as Dr. Izzie Stevens, who left the series a decade ago.
"Hey it's Grey's day!!!" she captioned the GIF, which features Izzie and Meredith laughing with the quote, "Dude, she went all cage fight on you."
After Patrick Dempsey, a.k.a. Meredith's late husband Derek Shepard, often referred to as McDreamy, came back to the show amid Meredith's "COVID dream," fans are desperate to know who else the comatose doctor might see while battling the coronavirus.
In a new clip for the upcoming episode, which fans will have to wait two weeks to see due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Meredith is seen calling out to someone on that infamous beach in her flowy white top.
Though Izzie didn't die on the show, some fans thought Pompeo's GIF might be a hint at a potential Heigl return.
"Izzie's gonna come back and her and jo are gonna fight that’s what this gif means," one commenter wrote.
"I feel like it’s a hint that Callie or izzie will be back," another fan wrote.
Not directly addressing the speculation about Izzie, Pompeo did tweet, "If you really think about it... there's a lot of people it could be."
The Heigl GIF also comes after Pompeo and Heigl's former Grey's co-star, Isaiah Washington, publicly called Heigl out on Twitter earlier this week.
"This woman once proclaimed that I should ‘never’ be allowed to speak publicly again," he wrote alongside a picture of Heigl. "The world agreed with her proclamation back then and protested for my job and my head in 65 languages. I wish I was on Twitter in 2007, because I will NEVER stop exercising my free speech."
Heigl has not publicly commented on Washington's recent claims, but did previously allege that Washington had made a homophobic slur towards their co-star T.R. Knight on-set.
Within months, ABC announced Washington would not be returning to the show for its next season. He is said to have penned an official apology and also shot a PSA for gay rights supporters, GLAAD.
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