General Hospital Recasts Lucas With As the World Turns’ Van Hansis

General Hospital is tapping soap opera vet Van Hansis to bring Lucas back to Port Charles.

“It’s a little bit like riding a bicycle. Once you get in it, you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, I know how to do this, and I know how this works.’ But there is definitely a difference,” Hansis said in an interview with TV Insider published on Friday, September 27. “This is the first soap I’ve done since As the World Turns and it moves incredibly quickly.”

Hansis, 43, played a different Lucas — Luke Synder — on As the World Turns from 2005 to 2010, where he scored three Daytime Emmy Nominations. After a decade hiatus from the soap opera world, Hansis will make his General Hospital debut as Lucas Jones on October 4.

“I guess I have a type, huh?” he teased, pointing out the similarities in the 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.”

Related: Stars You Forgot Were on ‘General Hospital’: John Stamos and More

General Hospital has had numerous different cast members during its 60-year run, including some familiar faces. John Stamos got his start on the soap opera with his role as Blackie Parish from 1982 to 1984. Even though he starred on the show for only two years, Stamos has discussed the tremendous impact General Hospital had […]

Lucas was last portrayed by Ryan Carnes who played the character on GH off-and-on from 2004 to 2024. Carnes’ last appearance on the ABC soap was in January when they honored Bobbie Spencer (played by Jacklyn Zeman). The actress died in May 2023 at age 70.

“I always would dream about being back on As the World Turns, like how people have dreams about being back in college or whatever. If mine wasn’t about World Turns, I’d have recurring dreams about being on a soap,” he reflected. “So being on General Hospital, I guess, is literally 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.”

Hansis added that he’s been welcomed in by the General Hospital cast and crew’s “awesome family environment.”

“From what I’ve seen, everybody really lifts each other up in a nice way because daytime has its own challenges in so far as having to work really, really quickly,” he told the outlet. “Everybody’s been super helpful. I’ve had scenes with a lot of different people because Lucas was born on the show, so he knows a lot of people in town. I did as much research as I could, but there were sometimes where I just asked whichever actor I was working with, ‘How do I know you? Do we like each other? Am I happy about you being back with so and so?’ And everybody was so helpful in filling in the back story.”

Related: Kristian Alfonso, Alison Sweeney and More Shocking Soap Opera Exits

When soap opera stars leave their roles, it can be as shocking as their shows’ plotlines. Alison Sweeney surprised longtime Days of Our Lives fans in 2014 when she announced she’d be exiting the series after 21 years. “I’ve been on Days of Our Lives since I was 16 years old, and I have never […]

One person Hansis was particularly excited to see on set was Maura West, who played Carly Tenney on As the World Turns but now portrays Ava Jerome on General Hospital.

“I was coming out of a wardrobe fitting [and] she was grabbing her wardrobe for the day. This was the day that we had scenes together and she just looked at me and it was like she saw a ghost,” he recalled. “She was like, ‘Van?’ And she gave me a big hug and then she was like, ‘Wait, are you Lucas?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and she screamed so loudly that the security guard came down to see because they thought somebody was getting hurt or something.”