Scott Speedman Sets ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Return, Upping Number Of Episodes In Season 21

EXCLUSIVE: Meredith and Nick may indeed be moving in together. Scott Speedman, who plays Meredith Grey’s (Ellen Pompeo) on- and off- love interest Nick Marsh on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, has closed a deal to continue to recur on the hit medical drama in its upcoming 21st season. I hear he is set to appear in at least five episodes.

That is more than the abbreviated Season 20 when Speedman did four episodes. He is joining Pompeo, who, as Deadline revealed exclusively last month, also will ramp up her on-screen presence next season, appearing in at least seven episodes. Reps for ABC, Shondaland and ABC Signature, which are behind the long-running series, declined comment.

Asked by Deadline at Comic-Con whether he would be doing more episodes now that his on-screen partner Pompeo will be featured more prominently in Season 21, Speedman was noncommittal but hopeful.

“Maybe, yeah, we’ll see. I never know what’s going on over there,” he said. “But I hope so, it’s a fun show.”

Speedman has had an unusual love interest trajectory on Grey’s. He originally signed a one-year series regular deal for Season 18 in what was expected to be a season-long arc. That looked to be the case when, by the Season 18 finale, Nick and Meredith had fallen out, she told him that he should probably go back to Minnesota, he walked out, she eventually ran after him but he was gone.

But fans liked Meredith and Nick and a couple, and so did the Grey’s Anatomy writers. Speedman has recurred on Grey’s ever since, doing 14 episodes in Season 19 and four in Season 20. That included key appearances in the Season 19 and 20 premieres and finales, delivering swoon-worthy love speeches in romantic reconciliations with Meredith in both closers.

“We’re just so excited for Meredith and Nick to be together,” new Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Meg Marinis told Deadline after the Season 20 premiere. “We’ll follow that relationship.”

In the Season 20 closer, Nick flew in from Boston to again profess his love despite Meredith making it very hard for him to be part of her life, something he acknowledged. She responded with a grand gesture of her own, revealing that she had just put in an offer on the Chestnut Hill house he had mentioned in the previous episode as a place they could make into a home together.

Speedman, who nest stars in Peacock’s James Wan-produced horror series Teacup, is repped by CAA.