A Major ABC Show Just Recast a Character: What to Know About Latest ‘General Hospital’ Switch

General Hospital is doing another recast, but it’s just temporary. After portraying Lucky Spencer since 1993, Jonathan Jackson is stepping away, but only for a handful of episodes, Soap Opera Digest reports. Beginning with the Feb. 18 episode, Lucky, the son of supercouple Luke Spencer and Laura Webber, has been played by Days of Our Lives star Guy Wilson. Jackson is reportedly already back filming and will make his on-screen return very soon.

A reason for Jackson’s departure has not been given, but this is not the first time that someone else has stepped into the role of Lucky. After Jackson initially excited General Hospital in 1999, Lucky was played by Jacob Young from 2000 to 2003 and then Greg Vaughan from 2003 to 2009. Jackson took over the role again in 2009 until 2011 and then briefly returned in 2015. He made his long-awaited return as Lucky last August, and although it seems worrisome that Wilson is portraying Lucky, it’s nice to know that it will only be briefly. An exact date for Jackson’s return has not been revealed.

Meanwhile, this may be Wilson’s first time playing Lucky, but it’s not his first time playing someone in the Spencer family. In 2006, Wilson played a teenage version of Anthony Geary’s Luke Spencer in a fantasy sequence. He’s also no stranger to the soap opera genre, having appeared on Days of Our Lives from 2014 to 2015.

This is not the first time that an actor has had to be temporarily replaced on General Hospital and it likely won’t be the last. Additionally, the temporary replacement is certainly a lot better than a full-blown exit and replacement, something that GH has seen quite a lot of as of late. Kelly Monaco, Chad Duell, and Michael Easton are just a few of the actors to leave Port Charles over the last year. As of now, it doesn’t seem like Jackson will be joining the list again, and one can only hope that he makes his way back to screens very, very soon.

Fans will just have to keep a lookout for Jonathan Jackson’s anticipated return to Port Charles, but in the meantime, Guy Wilson doesn’t seem to be doing such a bad job at portraying Lucky Spencer. New episodes of General Hospital air weekdays on ABC.