On Friday, September 15, “Days of our Lives” will be welcoming back three-time Daytime Emmy Award winning actor Chandler Massey to the role of Will Horton. Considering the character was supposed to have died tragically by strangulation during the soap’s serial killer storyline in 2015 (when he was played by Guy Wilson), what can fans expect when the character is resurrected very much alive this week? While we still don’t know exactly the how, we can at least scratch off “zombie” from the list of possibilities.
“Will certainly wouldn’t be the first person to come back from the dead,” says Massey in an interview with the New York Post, published today. “They [the writers] have a medically plausible explanation” as to how the character is alive. As for what Will can look forward to upon his return, considering his husband, Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith), has since moved on with Paul Narita (Christopher Sean) and the two plan to wed, Massey could only say Will’s return “throws a pretty sizable wrench into [that] romance.”
With scenes of Sonny and Will requiring re-shoots to accommodate Massey back in the role, including the infamous death scene, Massey explains that shooting those scenes were intense, but there wasn’t really anything unusual about doing it. “The scenes were very intense and required a lot of energy, but I don’t think it’s weird,” Massey says of re-shooting scenes previously shot by another actor. “When I first started on the show, I was a recast. There’s a kid named Dylan [Patton], who played Will before me, and there were a bunch of Wills before him. So that’s just kind of how it goes, you know?”
Despite other actors playing the character before and after him, Massey is the one the show ultimately wanted back for Will’s return to the show. “When we learned that Chandler was interested in returning to acting, we felt it was a sign,” said “DAYS” co-executive producer Greg Meng. “Guy did a phenomenal job [as Will Horton],” adds Massey. “If I had to speculate, I would say playing Will originally when the coming-out story was happening and all that just worked ultimately in my favor.”
Since originally departing the soap in 2013 to attend UCLA, Massey has appeared in episodes of NBC’s “Bad Judge” and Disney Channel’s “BUNK’D.” He’s also appeared in the movies “The Standoff” and “Butterfly Caught.” He now has two films in post-production, “Hide in the Light” and “Aquarians.”
Will’s return to “Days of our Lives” is scheduled for Friday, September 15. In story, Will first appears while his apparently drunk father, Lucas Horton (Bryan Dattilo), begs God for a sign. What better one than to see your son alive! But is Will really alive, or is Lucas just hallucinating? You’ll just have to tune in to find out!