Ryan Paevey Sets General Hospital Return — But Who Is He Playing?

Ryan Paevey has booked a return trip to Port Charles.

The soap opera vet will resurface on General Hospital in September — seven years after his character, Detective Nathan West, was killed off the ABC sudser.

Paevey's homecoming, which was first reported by Deadline, follows the returns of Kelly Thiebaud and Kathleen Gati, who play Nathan's back-from-the-dead sister Britt Westbourne and mother Liesl Obrecht. But it is unclear whether Paevey will reprise his role as Maxie Jones' late husband or assume a new part — perhaps, say, his ill-fated brother (and Maxie's ex-lover) Peter August.

News of Paevey's GH return comes one year after the Hallmark Channel alum announced his intentions to step back from acting. At the time, he told Heavy that Hollywood "hasn't felt like the place for me in quite some time now, and my mental health has suffered from it.... I've had many years of smooth sailing, and am very lucky to be able to say that, but the waters have been much rougher the last year or so."

Paevey went on to allege that he had been the victim of several financial scams in recent years — "I've had bank accounts hacked, money embezzled, investments stolen," he said — but it was his mother's diagnosis with lung cancer that prompted him to reprioritize family and time spent at home.

"Please don't think for a second that it's all bad news,'" he continued. "I have so, so much to be grateful for. I am grateful to this industry as a whole, I am grateful to General Hospital for giving a green actor a chance and tolerating his learning curve, to Hallmark for changing my life and taking me to places that have become my favorite on Earth, to my managers for seeing something in a grunt with no résumé and helping to architect a whole new trajectory and life for him, and to all of YOU who have helped raise up this handyman and bartender and taking him on a decade-long adventure the likes of which he never imagined. I have so much to be thankful for, and not a day goes by that I don't think that thought."

Are you looking forward to Ryan Paevey's return to General Hospital? And who do you think he'll play the second time around? Leave a comment and let us know.