Ellen Pompeo stepping back at Grey's Anatomy to star in Hulu's "Untitled Orphan Project"

Fly the flags half-mast at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital—after living through a plane crash, an active shooting situation, and the death of her McDreamy, Meredith Grey is taking a (partial) sabbatical. Ellen Pompeo will only appear in a “limited capacity” as Dr. Grey on the next installment of Grey’s Anatomy, TVLine reports. Pompeo’s contract was extended through the medical drama’s upcoming 19th season back in January. She will still serve as an executive producer on the series, and will also continue to narrate each episode.

Per TVLine, Pompeo plans to fill her time outside of Grey’s Anatomy executive-producing and starring in a new Hulu miniseries the streamer has been calling “Untitled Orphan Project.” Based on true events, the series follows a Midwestern couple who adopt an 8-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism. As they raise their new daughter alongside their existing three children, the couple begins to question her past—ultimately, they find themselves faced with the hard reality of how far they’ll go to protect themselves and their reputation. Hulu has given the series an initial eight-episode order.

It goes without saying that the logline for “Untitled Orphan Project” sounds quite a lot like the 2009 film Orphan—the secretive adoptive child with a murky past, the troubled marriage, the multiple siblings. However, the project doesn’t appear to be directly related to or descended from that film. It also doesn’t seem to be connected to the upcoming sequel Orphan: First Kill, due out on August 19.

The new project marks one of the few non-Grey’s Anatomy roles Pompeo has taken on, which include guest credits on Friends, Law & Order, and Strangers With Candy. As far as features go, she’s also performed in Daredevil, Catch Me If You Can, Old School, and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Regardless of her limited credits, playing Meredith Grey since 2005 has been far from fatal for Pompeo—since a contract renegotiation in 2017, she has consistently ranked among the highest-paid actors on television.