Well, this is a pleasant surprise.
Walt Willey is returning to daytime TV and reprising one of his most beloved roles.
Soap Opera Digest reports that the All My Children alum has closed a deal to star on General Hospital.
And get this:
Willey will be playing Jackson Montgomery!
Cool, right?
It’s always nice when a character we thought was long gone gets to stage a comeback long after the series has ended.
Willey joined the cast of All My Children in 1987 and stayed put until the 2011 series finale on ABC.
This is not the first time Willey has played Jackson in another series.
He appeared in The City in 1996, so this will be the third series the actor has played the same role.
Plot details are being kept under wraps about what brings Jackson to Port Charles, but it will be interesting to find out what happened to him following the conclusion of All My Children.
There is also scope for intel on what became of other characters, so that should be interesting, right?
There has been an indication that ABC is interested in a primetime revival of All My Children.
The last we heard about was from Kelly Ripa, who said it is still in development but hinted that it was not a top priority for the network.
“Hopefully, it comes back and hopefully sooner rather than later because, for me, that’s really, you know, that, to me, is the thing that I care about the most because All My Children is responsible for every good thing that happened to me in my life,” Ripa said last summer.
Pine Valley was to be a primetime continuation of the beloved daytime soap.
The series was then set to focus on a young reporter with a secret agenda who arrives in town to bring Pine Valley’s deadly history to light.
The young journalist gets tied up in a feud between the Santos and Kane families.
We can hope that the project sees the light of day.
Until then, we’ll be waiting to learn more about Jackson’s storylines in Port Charles.
What are your thoughts on the big return?
Hit the comments.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.