'General Hospital' brings back major fan-favorite star after milestone episode and it's not Steve Burton
'General Hospital' fans are in for a treat since two Daytime Emmy Award-winning acting virtuosi are finally returning to the soap opera. The long-running ABC soap recently celebrated the taping of its milestone 16,000th episode. To commemorate the occasion, the show's Instagram page posted a video highlighting the celebrations that took place on the set. Apart from the return of Steve Burton's Jason Morgan, the video also hinted at another fan favorite character's comeback.
Ending her hiatus from Port Charles, Finola Hughes's Anna will now return to 'General Hospital.' This was confirmed by the celebration video, which featured both Burton and Hughes suggesting they had resumed filming. Hughes was last seen as Anna on the ABC show back in February. Burton, too, had declared around that same time that he would be taking a planned hiatus from the show after his last episode aired in March. As revealed by a source to the Soap Opera Digest, Monday was Burton's first day of work following the end of his hiatus.
Hughes has been a part of 'General Hospital' since 1985 and has appeared as Anna on and off on the soap opera. The character was temporarily written out of the show after she ended up in a psychiatric hospital in France, falling victim to the sinister designs of Andrew Hawkes's Cullum and Carlo Rota's Sidwell. Upon the insistence of the latter duo, Anna was abd*cted and dru*ged with chloroform to make her believe that her arch-rival, Cesar Faison, played by Anders Hove, had somehow cheated death and was still alive. Despite being written off, Anna's return to the show was just a matter of time, given the popularity of her character. Earlier this year, actor Chris McKenna hinted on social media that Anna was ''on her way back.''
Similarly, the show has also been taking narrative steps to ensure that Anna is reintegrated into the ongoing storyline. This is confirmed by Katelyn MacMullen's Willow, who calls in a few favors and pulls some strings to ensure that the French authorities drop the pending charges against Anna. On the other hand, Burton took some time off from the show to be with his family and his wife Michelle, whom he married a year ago. His temporary exit from the show was written off as Jason became the fall guy for Rocco, as the latter had shot the WSB director Cullum in the back to prevent him from murdering Jason and Britt. Cullum eventually figured out that Jason wasn't his true assailant and that Rocco was responsible. 'General Hospital' is available on ABC.
