Before Grey’s Anatomy wrapped its midseason finale — not to return until March on the 2025 TV schedule — the show said goodbye to two beloved doctors in Levi Schmitt and Mika Yasuda. Any longtime Grey’s fan such as myself knows, however, that leaving the show never necessarily means a character is gone for good, so the first question on everybody’s mind was will Jake Borelli ever return? Could Midori Francis reprise her character down the road? I’m always interested to know how former cast members feel, and now Martin Henderson has shared his own views.
Starting back in Season 12, Martin Henderson starred on Grey’s Anatomy as Nathan Riggs, who dated Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) before reuniting with Army surgeon Megan Hunt (Abigail Spencer) when she was found after being MIA for 10 years. In Season 14, Nathan and Megan both left Seattle to rekindle their romance in California. So how does Henderson feel about a possible comeback over seven years since we last saw Riggs? He told Deadline:
I haven’t given it a lot of thought, just because I’ve been so committed and busy with Virgin River and some other stuff and life. But I think Shonda Rhimes has always been really supportive of me; we’ve actually worked together a bunch of times on different things, so I would always be open to the possibility. Again, if it fitted in with whatever else was going on in my life at the time and my career.
Martin Henderson certainly isn’t hurting for work, as Season 6 of Virgin River finally hit streaming (available in full with a Netflix subscription) and a seventh season already confirmed. He also previously said that Nathan Riggs was always intended to be a short-term character — brought in following Derek Shepherd’s death as a new romance for Meredith. However, Henderson isn’t shutting the door completely, as long as there would be a story that made sense for Riggs. He continued:
As long as I felt that the character had something to do and I could give something, because I don’t think they really knew what to do with Nathan. It was almost like a stopgap measure.with the departure of Derek. It was like, oh, we need a love interest. And so he, and by virtue I, was dropped into this world, but I don’t think he was ever that defined. If I were to go back, I would have to make sure that there was a really clear plan for why he was there.
I personally liked Meredith and Nathan Riggs together and how they kind of leaned on each other after the tragic losses of their partners. Meredith letting him go after Megan was found alive is still heart-wrenching to think about all these years later.
That relationship didn’t last either, though. Megan Hunt returned sans Riggs in Season 18, saying that they’d broken up during the pandemic. The Meredith ship has seemingly sailed at this point, though, as Nick Marsh (Scott Speedman) appears to be her endgame. Riggs’ theoretical new storyline would likely have something to do with Megan’s brother Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), which would at least give Owen something to focus on other than the drama with his wife, Teddy, and Sophia Bush’s Cass Beckman.
You can catch Martin Henderson on Virgin River Season 6 or rewatch his seasons of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix. The first 20 seasons of Grey’s is also available with a Hulu subscription if you want to rewatch from any of these great starting points.