General Hospital Casting Shocker: Ryan Paevey Returns For ‘Meaty Storyline’ — But As Nathan?
Major casting news is poised to shake up the future of Port Charles: Ryan Paevey is returning to General Hospital in September! Deadline broke the news, but the announcement did not say whether Paevey would be coming back as Det. Nathan West, his old character, or as someone new. Paevey hinted to the outlet that he would be returning “for awhile,” explaining, “I thought if we’re going to do this we should really do it and surprise the fans with a meaty storyline.”
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Paevey — who found a foothold in show business quite by accident, when he was scouted by modeling agents and, after success in print campaigns, commercials and music videos for stars like Christina Aguilera, eventually began taking acting lessons — made his GH debut in 2013 in the role of Nathan, the hunky police officer who stole the heart of Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms) and became the trusted PCPD partner of Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna).
In a 2014 interview with Soap Opera Digest, the actor admitted, “Sometimes I struggle with feeling a little undeserving [of an acting career] because I know so many people who are so passionate about it since day one and they try so hard and they just can’t get that break.”
Paevey made such a splash as Nathan that he landed his first leading role in a Hallmark Channel movie, Unleashing Mr. Darcy, in 2015; another Hallmark flick followed in 2017, as did the Lifetime Movie Locked In. With his star on the rise outside of daytime, he elected to exit GH in 2018, and the show decided to script a demise for Nathan, who died in the line of duty after being shot by his father, Cesar Faison, leaving behind his pregnant wife, Maxie. She later welcomed the couple’s only child, son James.
The actor opened up about opting to say good-bye to GH to Digest, noting, “My decision to leave had nothing to do with being dissatisfied with the show or anything like that at all. I was totally green when GH hired me. The [contract] was for four years and at the time, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s a huge block of time…’ I don’t know that it was ever a plan to stay forever.” Still, he confessed, “Letting Nathan go was not a decision reached easily by any of us. I found it more difficult at the end than I would have thought.”
Later that same year, when Paevey spoke to Digest about his latest project for Hallmark, he said, “I owe the soap universe quite a bit,” and said he didn’t take the continuing loyalty of GH fans for granted, acknowledging, “There was a fair bit of backlash for my decision to leave the show. A lot of people were not happy with me, and I understand that. I didn’t leave because I didn’t like my job. They didn’t fire me. This is the nature of contracts. We agreed on a certain period of time, and that certain period of time elapsed.”
In that interview, Paevey also signaled his willingness to return to Port Charles in the future, saying, “I will come back any time they want because of what they did for my life.”
After a strong run of more films for Hallmark, Paevey announced in 2024 that he was taking a step back from acting, which he described as “something I’ve felt I’ve needed to do for a while now, and a decision proven to be absolutely necessary in the past few weeks. The industry hasn’t felt like the place for me in quite some time now, and my mental health has suffered from it.”
Paevey also deactivated his social media for a time, but has subsequently reactivated his Instagram account and, in a video posted there last week, he hinted at his GH comeback, saying, “I’ve got some news to share with you guys soon. I’ve got some irons in the fire. I got all kinds of fun stuff coming up.”
The actor’s return to the show comes hot on the heels of two members of Nathan’s on-screen family coming back to the canvas over the summer: First came Kathleen Gati, who plays Nathan’s biological mother, Liesl Obrecht; then came Kelly Thiebaud, who plays Britt, Nathan’s only full biological sibling.
The show’s head writers, Elizabeth Korte and Chris Van Etten, recently teased in an interview with Digest that the reintroduction of Britt was just the beginning of a larger story, declaring, “The excitement won’t end with her. The Faison/Obrecht clan is just getting started.”
There is, of course, no official word yet on whether Paevey’s character, be it Nathan or someone else, is who the writers were referring to.
Are you excited to have Paevey back in the Port Charles mix, and do you hope Nathan is being resurrected? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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