General Hospital viewers got a surprise during Monday’s show, and it seemed to rattle quite a few people. The character of Lucas Jones hasn’t been seen in quite some time now, but that changed with the November 16 episode. Unfortunately, this sudden appearance of Lucas wasn’t quite what everybody would have anticipated.
Normally, viewers would be thrilled to see Lucas back in the thick of things again. However, it wasn’t Ryan Carnes who returned in the role that’s been his for a while. A new actor is playing the role, and there wasn’t even an announcement of any sort.
Just about 15 minutes into Monday’s episode, a small group gathered at General Hospital. Olivia, Julian, Sam, and Lucas were there, as it seemed that little Leo had a minor accident. People wouldn’t have even realized that the doctor standing in the group was Lucas, had his name not been mentioned.
Usually, soap operas do a voiceover when someone new is taking over an established character. For whatever reason, General Hospital did not do that this time. What happened to Carnes, and who is the new guy?
“Not me taking far too long to figure out that random doctor was supposed to be Lucas,” one viewer tweeted .
Some General Hospital viewers didn’t seem to mind the recast and are already drooling over Carnes’ replacement.
“This new Lucas has fire….if Ryan couldn’t come back for some reason…this guy is fitting in nicely,” another person tweeted .
“Imo, not making an announcement about the actor playing Lucas, sums up a lot of how some story lines are being handled. Did you think we wouldn’t notice? Did you forget? Maybe a case of the 2020’s?” someone else noted on Twitter .
At the moment, it doesn’t appear that anybody has determined who the actor is who took over the role, and it isn’t clear whether this is for the long term.
General Hospital spoilers have suggested that Julian won’t be in Port Charles much longer. Given that, it’ll be interesting to see if the show brought Lucas back just as his father was being written out somehow.
Some General Hospital fans speculated that this recast was brought in so that Julian would spend a little bit of time with all of his kids before leaving for good. Whether it was that Carnes wasn’t available, wasn’t interested, or simply wasn’t asked, isn’t known at this point.
Plenty of General Hospital fans voiced their frustrations months ago that Lucas was shuffled aside after the baby swap bombshell was dropped. The writers could surely come up with something to do with this character if they wanted, but for now, everybody will have to stay tuned to see if he continues to pop up in scenes.