It wasn’t very long between the exit announcement of Billy Flynn (Chad DiMera) and the future debut of Hank Northrup, the late Wayne Northup’s (first Roman Brady) son.
Due To The Nine Month Filming Schedule, Billy’s Already Gone, And Hank Is Filming
It was recently revealed that the once six month gap between tape to airdate has become longer, and now it’s nine months. So in reality, Billy Flynn has been gone from the show for a while, and Hank Northrup has been filming.
Billy should air as Chad into early 2026, but nothing has been said about his children, or AnnaLynne McCord (Kat Greene)’s exits.
The way the storyline has been going, it’s predicted that Chad and Kat will stay together-so why has there been no word about her exit?
Perhaps it’s because instead of being written out of Salem, Chad is being recast-perhaps played by Hank Northrup.
No Character Has Been Announced For Hank To Play
No character has been announced for Hank to play, although there’s been some speculation that Doug Williams (Bill Hayes) wasn’t the only one with a secret son or grandson.
There was a time that John Black (Drake Hogestyn) was thought to be Roman Brady (now Josh Taylor) and fans speculated a rerun of Doug Williams III (Peyton Meyer) for John.
That assumption was likely made because Hank’s real life father, the late Wayne Northrup played the original Roman Brady.
Hank and Billy Flynn aren’t too far apart in age, and it makes much more sense given the timeline that Hank is Chad’s recast.
He started filming about the time that Billy left to play a character on the CBS soap The Young and The Restless.
Hank Has Come Into A Welcoming Place
Hank has come into a welcoming place, regardless of whether he’s Chad’s recast or a brand-new character-there are still castmates there who worked with his late father.
His beginning to film seems to line up with Billy’s wrapping up filming at DOOL, and if nothing else, it’s one heck of a big coincidence.
Billy will air on DOOL until early 2026, which means he’ll be shown on both it and The Young and The Restless concurrently.
It may take until Billy stops airing as Chad early next year before an announcement is made about Hank’s character and whether he will be a new Chad.
And not surprisingly, there may be a slight time gap between Billy’s exit and Hank’s debut, which would make more sense if Hank is indeed Chad’s recast.
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