‘General Hospital’ Recast Lucas Jones With Van Hasis

Actor Van Hansis is set to join the cast of General Hospital to take over the role of Lucas Jones. The actor has talked about his transition to the series, including how similar he feels Jones is to another soap character he’s played. The role also allowed Hansis to reunite with a former castmate from a previous soap.

Quite A Few Actors Have Played The Role Over The Years

Starting in early October, Hansis will take on the role of Lucas Jones. The character is the son of Julian Jerome and Cheryl Stansbury and was adopted by Dr. Tony Jones and Bobbie Spencer.

Since his introduction in 1989, the character has been played by a variety of actors, starting with his on-screen birth. Originally played by multiple child actors, some notable actors to play him since he had been aged up include C.J. Thomason, Ryan Carnes, Ben Hogestyn, and Matt Trudeau. Carnes briefly reprised the role early in 2024.

Van Hansis previously played the character of Luke Snyder on As the World Turns, starting in 2005, continuing in the role in 2010. The role helped earn Hansis a nomination for a Daytime Emmy Award for three consecutive years starting in 2007.

For his part, Hansis noted a connection between his two similarly-named soap characters. In a discussion with TV Insider, he mentioned that, “[T]here are weird little similarities between [ATWT‘s] Luke Snyder and Lucas.”

Hansis also noted that the two went through similar stories. As the publication noted, “When I got the part, I was looking up who [Lucas] was and they both have the same dad stuff going on with their birth father being kind of a dirtbag, because Luke had Damian (played by Paolo Seganti) and Lucas has Julian (played by Jason Culp and then William DeVry) and then adopted fathers.”

Hansis Got To Reunite With A Former Castmate

On returning to soaps, Hansis compared the experience to the old adage of riding a bicycle. As he put it, “Once you get in it, you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, I know how to do this, and I know how this works.’”

However, he noted some things weren’t going to be exactly the same: “There is definitely a difference. This is the first soap I’ve done since As the World Turns and it moves incredibly quickly. On As the World Turns, we would shoot a full episode a day usually.” However, with General Hospital, “there might be three or four episodes shooting in one working day.”

His arrival on the show also surprised Maura West. who played As the World Turns‘ Carly Tenney and and is General Hospital‘s Ava Jerome. As Hansis noted, “She didn’t know I got cast.” On the day they had scenes together, he claimed West “just looked at me and it was like she saw a ghost.”  Adding that she gave him a big hug, he added, “I have always loved Maura so much.”

Outside of soaps, Hansis also notably starred as Thom in the dark comedy web series EastSiders. Some other notable films Hansis has appeared in include Occupant, Devil May Call, and Kiss Me, Kill Me.

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