“Days of our Lives” fans who picked up on the explosive chemistry and heat oozing from actors Camila Banus and Brandon Barash as their characters, Gabi Hernandez and Stefan DiMera, respectively, took Salem by storm last year weren’t the only ones to have been paying attention to what was happening on-screen. Unfortunately, Stefan was later killed off last fall and Barash was let go from the show due to storyline reasons. The show has since corrected that mistake.
With Barash recently returning to the canvas as a new character, an auto mechanic named Jake, head writer Ron Carlivati spoke with Soap Opera Digest in its latest issue, on newsstands now, and said, “Brandon stepped in as a recast for Stefan and was a very different Stefan than the character Tyler [Christopher, ex-Stefan] created, and so when he first came on, we as a group, the writers and producers, were just not sure where that story was going to go.” He added, “Unfortunately, and for story reasons, as well, we killed him off. Of course, by the time it aired, we saw so much more for Gabi and Stefan as Brandon, and people seemed to really love the couple. We wondered if we could possibly recapture the magic with Gabi, so we decided to bring Brandon back, ultimately.”
Carlivati explained to the publication that multiple storyline plot points had been discussed in the interim, but in the end, “We decided to explore the idea of is this Stefan or is this not Stefan?”
To find out, keep tuning in to “Days of our Lives.” In the meantime, watch a clip below from our interview with Banus as we discuss the hotness that was Gabi and Stefan while on the red carpet of “The 46th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.”