'Grey's Anatomy' Casts Josh Radnor as Meredith's New Love Interest

The 'How I Met Your Mother' star will first appear in Thursday's episode.

Love is in the air... for Meredith Grey.

Grey's Anatomy has cast Josh Radnor as a potential love interest for Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) in season 15, ET can confirm. Radnor will first appear in Thursday's episode.

Though details on Radnor's character are being kept under wraps, Meredith meets him for the first time when they go out on a blind date, as People first reported. It is unclear whether Radnor, best known for his nine-season run as Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, will be staying around for more than one episode.

Grey's is exploring Meredith's dating life this season, as she embarks on a new journey to find her person following a roller-coaster run in the romance department following her husband, Derek Shepherd's, death in 2015.

In a recent interview, Pompeo addressed the difficulties Meredith has faced in finding love. "Patrick Dempsey is a very tough act to follow, and it's challenging to get someone to come on a season 15 show," Pompeo told Entertainment Weekly. "We're gonna find someone who makes an impact. That's our biggest challenge this year."

"There are possibilities all around her in the hospital and in Seattle at large," added Grey's showrunner Krista Vernoff. "Dating is complicated, and you don't always fall for the first person you sit across from. We're trying to reflect some of that."

Fans were in a tizzy in the season 15 premiere, when Grey's teased a hookup between Meredith and fellow doctor Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti), only to reveal that it was all just a dream. Ahead of the Grey's premiere, Gianniotti played coy about the possibility of a Meredith and DeLuca romance.

"Last season in the finale, they shared this drunken kiss. We didn’t know what it meant but there was something there. Meredith kind of pushed it off and it’s something we’ve been revisiting in this season," Gianniotti told ET in September. "Definitely in the premiere you’re going to see it right out of the gate, which is basically what you saw in the trailer but it’s going to be a little longer, a little bit more detailed. I think we’re going to see something blossoming between them: A friendship? A friendship that could be more? ... We are definitely building some romance, but to what degree, I don’t know."

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

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