Orange is the new Grey.
The first footage from season 16 of Grey's Anatomy is here -- and Meredith Grey is in big trouble.
After leaving us with several cliffhangers to obsess over all summer, the action picks up right where the dramatic finale left off on and, as one can surmise from watching the 30-second trailer, things have drastically changed at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.
In the teaser, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), newly fired from the hospital, is forced to face the consequences of her actions -- committing insurance fraud and allowing her beau, Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti), to take the fall -- as the former doc rocks an orange vest while picking up trash on the side of the road. Apparently, Meredith's temporary new gig is all part of community service she's been ordered to complete.
"Dr. Grey? Is this some kind of volunteer thing?" Grey Sloan's therapist asks, bewildered as she drives by.
"Something like that," Meredith says, unwilling to come clean about her real situation.
If Meredith was hoping to keep her legal issues at bay, that immediately goes out the window when her supervisor yells at her to go back to picking up trash: "Get back to work before I tell the court you're in contempt!" Awkward!
Then the drama cuts to Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) breaking the news to Teddy Altman (Kim Raver), Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) and Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) that Meredith, Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) have all been fired from Grey Sloan. Their stunned faces say it all.
And, if that wasn't enough, the answer to what happened to Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams), who infamously disappeared into the fog, may be more serious than previously thought. "Is he alive?" Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) asks.
Watch the new season 16 promo, with the quippy tagline "Orange is the new Grey," below.
Ask and you shall receive ?#GreysAnatomy pic.twitter.com/mIXIvVH3hJ
— Greys Anatomy (@GreysABC) September 6, 2019
ET spoke with Pickens Jr. and Raver for a glimpse into what awaits Grey's Anatomy when it returns in just a few weeks.
"You know that there's something on the other side of it that's going to be really exciting and is going to take the audience and they'll have to go on that ride, so that's the fun part," Pickens Jr. told ET in August. "Obviously, my character and [Meredith] and Alex, we've been fired now, so that's presenting a whole new set of issues, especially for Dr. Webber. It's going to test some of his stuff."
"It's going to be interesting," he added. "It's going to test everybody, the folks who remain at Grey Sloan and our characters who now have to look into new territory and figure out what's the next step of my career and my life. That's going to be what the audience is really going to take a hold of."
"It is quintessential Grey's with a lot of answers, a lot of questions, a lot of humor, some tears and it's just the beginning. Imagine you're in the seat of the roller-coaster ride and you've just gone down the first dip," Raver told ET last month. "That's the genius of Krista Vernoff, that she's going to put all those pieces together, because that's the fun of it too. You have to explode the greatness to find the jewels."
Grey's Anatomy returns Thursday, Sept. 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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