Will Hope Return to DAYS OF OUR LIVES? — Kristian Alfonso Speaks Out!

Two years after Kristian Alfonso parted ways with DAYS OF OUR LIVES as legacy character Hope Williams Brady, the beloved actress is returning to the Salem universe! From Monday, July 11, through Friday, July 15, Alfonso will be a part of the second chapter of the soap’s DAYS: BEYOND SALEM spinoff, which will stream on Peacock.

But as Alfonso explained in a recent issue of Soap Opera Digest, her participation is not a return to DAYS proper. “Honestly, I don’t think of this as going back to DAYS,” she insisted. “This is, I feel, a branch of it. Many actors came to my dressing room and were like, ‘Oh, so you’re coming back to DAYS?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t have any current plans to return, but this is a continuation of BEYOND, as it states in the title, and this story is what drew me back.’ It always has to be the story and the characters, and this made me excited. That’s why I decided to come on board.”

Even though she played Hope for 37 years, Alfonso confessed to feeling a flurry of butterflies when she arrived at the DAYS set to work on the five-episode limited series. “I’ve never felt such anxiety and such nerves,” she said. “I wanted it to be everything that the fans have wanted, because there was no closure when I left DAYS. This is like a love letter; this is for the fans. This is for the viewers who stuck by DAYS.”

Alfonso parted ways with the soap back in the summer of 2020, announcing that she would not be returning when DAYS resumed production that September after being shut down due to the pandemic. “I feel blessed and honored to have been invited into people’s homes for over three decades. However, it is now time for me to write my next chapter,” Alfonso said in a statement at the time. “I’ve already filmed my last episode several months ago.”

Reprising her role for BEYOND SALEM gave Alfonso a chance to say goodbye to both her fans and the crew she’d worked with for nearly four decades. And while she appreciated the opportunity to do both, another comeback — whether for the OG series or the spinoff — is not on her radar. At least not right now! “I don’t have any current plans to return,” she admitted. “I never say never; never have… I will not be popping in and out like other actors have done in the past. I didn’t say I’m never, ever coming back. But I don’t have any current plans.”