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There was a reason behind all of the recent mentions of Lucas Jones on ABC’s General Hospital! Soaps In Depth has confirmed that Ryan Carnes, who previously played Lucas from 2004-2005, will reprise the role in 2014.
Ryan Carnes returning to ‘General Hospital’; Photo by Lewis Payton
General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini confirmed the casting exclusively to Soaps in Depth. “Yes, he’s coming back.”I got to meet him the other day. I like him a lot.”
Ryan Carnes landed the role of Bobbie (Jackie Zeman) and Tony’s (Brad Maule)’s adopted son Lucas in 2004. During his tenure on GH, Lucas helped out his cousin and best friend Georgie Jones during her ongoing relationship troubles with Dillon. He also began dating Tracy Quartermaine’s granddaughter, Brook Lynn Ashton. After appearing sporadically, a new storyline was in the works for Lucas, which would have the character come out as gay.
A few weeks after news of Lucas coming out was reported by TV Guide, it was announced that Carnes would be exiting the show. The role was recast with Ben Hogestyn, son of Days of our Lives star Drake Hogestyn. According to the magazine, sources close to the actor (then 22) said Carnes chose to depart GH due to fears of being typecast for playing another gay character, so soon after playing gay characters in the film Eating Out and ABC’s primetime soap Desperate Housewives.
Carnes rep issued a statement denying TV Guide’s report, indicating that the actor had no problem playing a gay character. “Ryan is probably the last one who’d have a problem playing a gay character. He’s done it twice, so he’s very happy and very comfortable with it.”
In fact, they shared that the actor already planned to leave the show in the fall; choosing to leave earlier as to not disrupt the story in progress. “We have known for a good year now that he would be done with General Hospital at the end of this summer because of his fall commitments. We didn’t want to get him involved in the gay story line and then up and pull him [from the role] halfway through. [Lucas’ sexual orientation is] going to be a central issue that affects everybody on the show. For the integrity of the show and the character, Ryan wanted to bow out before the story line got really good.”
After the recast, Lucas came out to Georgie in 2005 on National Coming Out Day. When he came out to his parents, Tony took the news easier than Bobbie. Tragically, Lucas lost his father during the encephalitis outbreak. He was written out soon after and Lucas moved to Seattle, where he’s lived since 2006.
After departing General Hospital, Carnes continued appearing on Desperate Housewives intermittently until 2006. He also landed guest starring roles on CSI: Miami, Doctor Who, Samantha Who, Saving Grace, Bones, NCIS, Blackout and Rizzoli & Isles. He starred in Syfy’s 2009 TV film The Phantom. He can be seen in ABC’s Suburgatory in 2014.
Lucas will have a lot of new family to meet when he returns to Port Charles. Over the summer, not only did his biological father, mobster Julian Jerome (William DeVry) return from the dead, but it was revealed that Julian is Sam Morgan’s (Kelly Monaco) father! That means Lucas has a new sister and nephew (Sam’s son Danny), in addition to his other Jerome family ties, aunt Ava (Maura West) and cousin Kiki (Kristen Alderson).
If that seems like a lot of digest, just wait until he reunites with his Spencer kin! Don’t worry, we’ll have a breakdown of Lucas’ familial ties in another article.
What does the future have in store for Lucas? There’s a lot of angles to explore with the character before even discussing who he could be linked up with. Will he want to get to know his new family? Will he rekindle his relationship with his adopted sister? Will he come between Felix and Brad? So much potential!
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