Sandra Oh has no immediate plans to return to Grey Sloan Memorial hospital.
At the Los Angeles premiere of her new HBO series The Sympathizer on Tuesday, April 9, the 52-year-old actress opened up about the possibility of returning to Grey’s Anatomy after departing the hit ABC medical drama a decade ago.
“I love that, I love that people are still [fans],” she told Entertainment Tonight of viewers wanting her to reprise her role as fan-favorite Cristina Yang. “I love that you asked me that, because Cristina Yang is, of course, near and dear to my heart. [But] I will say, not anytime soon, my love.”
Oh shared that she hopes fans “feel like I did my job, which is that I brought to life a character and she had a growth over 10 seasons, and that it was true.”
“She was ready to move on, and so have I,” she added of playing Cristina for 10 seasons.
Last month, Kevin McKidd told PEOPLE that he thinks Christina and his character Owen Hunt have unfinished business — and he would like to see her return to the series after exiting in 2013.
“I was just talking about it the other night, I was like, ‘I feel like we should try and get Cristina to come back,’” he shared of his former onscreen wife. “And maybe it’s something to do with some heart transplant or something that she has to show up or I don’t know.”
McKidd believed a conversation between the former couple would be “complicated because there’s such a love between Cristina and Owen, and when they said goodbye to each other, they didn’t really get a proper goodbye with each other. It was kind of left hanging.”
“Cristina was up there in the gallery and Owen was stuck in the OR, they literally just nodded at each other and she had to leave,” he added. “So I think there’s a lot of history there they would have to talk about.”
Along with many Grey’s Anatomy fans, the Rome alum questioned what Cristina would be doing now.
“I wonder, is she married now? Does she have a husband?” he asked. “I don’t think so. I think she’s still on this single-minded track and Owen’s happily married with Teddy now but there’s all that history between him and Cristina.”
“I think it would be an amazing episode, maybe Owen has to travel somewhere, and here’s Cristina at some conference,” he suggested. “I don’t know, but I think it would be really great television.”
Oh previously shut down the possibility of reprising her role on Grey’s Anatomy in 2021, explaining on the Los Angeles Times’ Asian Enough podcast that she’s “moved on.”
“It’s very rare, I would say, to be able to see in such a way the impact of a character. In some ways, you do your work as a bubble and you let it go,” she explained. “I left that show, my God, seven years ago almost. So in my mind, it’s gone. But for a lot of people, it’s still very much alive. And while I understand and I love it, I have moved on.”
“I love it, though,” she added. “And this is also why I really appreciate the show … that I still get asked this.”
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and The Sympathizer premieres Sunday, April 14 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.