Shonda Rhimes says she's rewritten the 'Grey's Anatomy' ending 'a good eight times' but doesn't know if she'll even have a say in how it ends anymore

• "Grey's Anatomy" creator Shonda Rhimes told Variety she's rewritten its finale "a good eight times."
• She's not the showrunner anymore but confirmed she decides when it ends.

ABC's hit medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" has been on the air for 18 seasons, a history-making run its creator, Shonda Rhimes, couldn't have predicted when the pilot, "A Hard Day's Night," aired on March 27, 2005.

Rhimes told Variety in a recent interview that while she served as official showrunner on the series, she planned many possible endings, just in case.

"I've written the end of that series, I want to say, a good eight times," she said. "And all of those things have already happened. So I give up on that, you know what I mean?"

The "Bridgerton" creator "handed off all the reins entirely" when it comes to creative decisions to the new "Grey's Anatomy" showrunner Krista Vernoff starting in season 14, she told Variety.

"And the best reason I can say for doing that is because if I had any creative involvement, then I would have notes. And if I had notes, people would have to take those notes," she said. "And if people had to take those notes, then suddenly it's not their show anymore."

She is currently busy writing the "Bridgerton" prequel "Queen Charlotte," so she's happy to let Vernoff take complete control over what happens in the halls of Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital.

'Grey's Anatomy' writer Jamie Denbo previously told Insider that the cast consistently remains excited about "new experiences" for their characters

Rhimes told Variety that she does have a say in when "Grey's Anatomy" will end.

"Am I the person who decides when the show is over? Yes," she said. "And I take full responsibility for that when or if everybody gets mad at me."

Even though she's given Vernoff creative control, Rhimes still seems open to the possibility of writing the medical drama's final moments. "Am I going to be the person who decides like what the final scene is? I don't know!" she admitted.

When "Grey's Anatomy" writer Jamie Denbo (who joined the show for season 18) spoke to Insider in October, she said she was surprised by how eager the cast was to tell new stories when she visited the set.

"The actors don't show up to this set like they've been here a hundred times before, they show up to do new work and discover new things all the time," she said. "And they always want new things and new experiences for themselves and their characters."

Denbo admitted she expected that the cast and crew "might be just going through the motions" of their jobs this long into the show's run, but that wasn't her experience on set when she wrote season 18 episode three, the episode in which Kate Walsh returned as Addison Montgomery.

The cast was "still very, very committed" to finding "new colors" for their characters and new ways for the story to grow.

"Grey's Anatomy" season 18 airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.