Chad Duell opened up about the direction General Hospital took for Michael post his exit. He revealed that he didn’t expect the makers would recast the character and modify it a bit. However, he remains very open to reprising his character, which is now essayed by Rory Gibson.

Chad Duell thought he was taking a break, wanted to return eventually

In a conversation with Michael Fairman, Duell shared how he thought that he was taking a break from GH and would be back to reclaim his role. However, unbeknownst to him, the makers decided to take a different turn. “Things changed. They kind of changed up the character a little bit. I didn’t know — I was like, ‘I’m taking some time away, we’ll see what happens.’ But then, yeah, obviously they decided to go a different direction with him when I was gone.”

He believed that the makers wouldn’t replace him, but they eventually did, which he understood as that’s how business works. He further mentioned that he informed them about his 2024 exit months prior, so that they could write a proper exit for his character. “I wanted to give them notice. I didn’t want to throw it on him last minute. I didn’t want to be like, ‘Hey, see ya!’ I wanted to let them have time, like three months or so [to] flesh out a storyline to get me to step away for a bit,” he added.

Michael’s exit was set up as he was sent overseas to be treated for the injuries of an explosion. Duell noted that Michael’s face wasn’t burned, as he had informed prior to EP Frank Valentini that he would return. “It was just a little bit of a break. So I assumed that if they would have burned my face, they could have brought somebody back looking different than me… if that’s what their plan was,” he explained.

Following his exit in 2024, Valentini announced that there were no plans to recast Michael’s role at the time.

However, they eventually recast him in May 2025, bringing in Gibson.