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General Hospital is bringing back an iconic character, but he’s being played by a new actor. On October 4, Lucas Jones will return to Port Charles for the first time since a two-episode arc back in January. Earlier this year, Ryan Carnes reprised the role for the first time since 2020. However, when Lucas returns, he’ll be played by Van Hansis. Keep reading to find out more… Soap opera fans will recognize Van from As the World Turns where he played Luke Snyder between 2005 and 2010. In fact, the new casting reunited him with a former As the World Turns costar – Maura West. “I guess I have a type, huh?” Van told TV Insider about the similarity between his two characters’ names. “There are times when I want to call myself Luke, but then I know that there’s Luke [Anthony Geary] and Laura [Genie Francis], and Luke is one of the biggest soap characters in the world. So, I know I’m not that Luke, but there are weird little similarities between Luke Snyder and Lucas. When I got the part, I was looking up who the character was and they both have the same dad stuff going on with their birth father being kind of a dirtbag because Luke had Damian [Paolo Seganti] and Lucas has Julian [William deVry] and then adopted fathers, so there are parallels.” Van noted that his soap opera return was “a little bit like riding a bicycle.” However, he added that General Hospital moves at a different pace, often filming three to four episodes at a time. Admitting that he had dreams about returning to As the World Turns, Van told the outlet that his new casting was “a dream come true.” “But there was so much I got out of being on World Turns. It was my first job. There was so much, especially with the character, and I think I was just so young, I didn’t understand and I didn’t really appreciate that. Luke was one of the first gay male lead characters. With some time and some distance, I’m like, ‘Wow, that was a really cool experience,’ but I was in the moment and it didn’t feel like how it feels now,” he reminisced. It was not lost on him that Lucas is also a gay character. “It feels great,” he said. “And I love that Lucas is not the only gay character on the show. I remember when Luke and Noah kissed [on ATWT] for the first time, we had Entertainment Tonight come. And I get it, but it’s great that we’re in a place where it’s so casual, just like how it is in life. There are gay people in life so there should be gay people on soaps and queer people and trans people and all of that. So, the fact that it’s so ingrained and it’s not like ‘the gay character’ or ‘the gay storyline’ feels really nice.” Another character was recently recast on General Hospital. Check out the sudser’s biggest casting changes of the year. It’s unclear why Ryan is not reprising his role, but we’ll update you if we learn more.
