Jonathan Jackson Previews His Return to General Hospital!

As soon as viewers saw the arms and legs of someone in handcuffs and chains in the previews at the end of Thursday’s episode of General Hospital, they began speculating about who it could be. But Friday, Aug. 23 is the day when Jonathan Jackson returns as Lucky Spencer, so that became the obvious guess!

Jackson debuted as Luke and Laura’s son back in 1993 and earned six Daytime Emmy Award nominations and three wins before his exit in 1999. The role was then recast with Jacob Young and Greg Vaughan before Jackson returned in 2009 for a couple of years, earning three more Emmy nods and two wins for that run. He then returned for a brief appearance in 2015 as part of Anthony Geary’s farewell storyline as Luke but now he’s back for a lengthy run on the soap!

“In 2015 when I came back, it was just for two days, for Tony’s exit from the show,” Jackson told TV Insider. “That felt like a blur, so I guess it’s been since 2011 since I’ve been a regular. I mean, that’s a long time, and the first time I left [in 1999], there was a decade gap before I came back. I think I was around 28 years old and that felt more disorienting and a bit strange, and I think it was just because I left the show when I was 17. You’re just a very different person in some ways when you’re 28 as opposed to 17. And so finding the role as an adult, coming back with Lucky being a cop and all that, it just felt different. I felt like I needed to establish something quite different than when I was a teenager. This doesn’t feel as difficult for some reason. It felt pretty seamless.”

The actor warns fans that the Lucky that they’re going to see this time around will be different from the one that they saw back in 2009 and even 2015. “I guess I would say in some ways, he’s the most like Luke that he’s ever been,” Jackson mused. “That’s a bit of the feeling I get. In 2010 when he came back, he was a cop and he was trying to create an identity for himself, and in some ways in opposition to his father. I don’t exactly know where he is now, because we’re just kind of beginning but it feels like he’s become a little bit more like his father as time has gone on.”

Jackson also urges fans to be ready for some twists and turns with Lucky’s return to GH. “Well, he’s been away for almost a decade so I would say that the reasons for him being away and what he’s been up to are revealed,” he teased. “He hasn’t just been sitting in an apartment writing his novel. He’s been up to stuff.”

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