Days of Our Lives Coming and Goings updates include Elia Cantu confirming she wrapped her run as Jada Hunter and some other big ins and outs, including five more exits and a couple of new faces cropping up. We’re going to get into the latest ins and outs and the revolving door of cast at Days.
Days of Our Lives: Elia Cantu Wraps as Jada Hunter
So, we’ve got several big pieces of casting news for you in this update. But let’s start with Jada Hunter leaving Salem. So, this week, actress Elia Cantu herself announced on her social media that she is saying goodbye to Days of Our Lives. So, if you don’t remember, the actress made her debut as Jada on the soap on July 19th, 2022. And at the time, she popped up in town applying for a detective position with the Salem PD. And if you don’t remember, Elia Cantu’s character is a legacy. Her dad is Dr. Marcus Hunter (Richard Biggs), who was last seen, I think, back in like 1992.
And we got the first hint of Jada maybe exiting when Elia Cantu was dropped from the Days credits back in March. So at that time it looked like okay she’s been dropped off contract she’ll be recurring. You know that was the assumption whenever that happens is that we would keep seeing her as Jada Hunter. And between 2022 and now almost four years later we have watched her get a lot closer to Shawn Brady (Brandon Beamer). And of course, Jada was promoted to the position of police commissioner. But we do not know her final exit date yet.
Elia Cantu Expresses Her Gratitude to DOOL
Now, in her announcement where she confirmed her exit, Elia said it was an honor having portrayed Jada Louise Hunter. And she thanked the cast, the crew, and the fans. And she says she’s excited for her next adventure, whatever that may be. So far, I haven’t seen any new projects, though, on her IMDb page. And if you recall, her co-star and scene partner Brandon Beemer, who plays Shawn Brady, was actually fired before they brought him back. That was back in 2023 when they also asked Ari Zucker, Camila Banus, Martha Madison, Nadia Bjorlin, and others as part of what was known as the Albert Allar bloodbath.
But right now, Jada is in the thick of things, front and center. She may possibly have to arrest her best friend Stephanie Johnson (Abigail Klein) for shooting at Joy Wesley (AlexAnn Hopkins). Plus, Jada and Shawn are heating up this week. They are getting into a real romance soon and are probably hitting the sheets again soon. And fortunately, thanks to that 9-to-10-month advance tape to air delay for Days of Our Lives, we will get to see more of Jada with Shawn before Elia Cantu wraps her run should be in early 2027.
Days of Our Lives: Multiple Exits Coming Soon
So, maybe Jada and Shawn leave town together because Days seems to be exiting people in pairs right now. Because don’t forget when the actors came back from their holiday break in January, Carson Boatman, Raven Bowens, Leo Howard, and Ashley Puzemis all got pink slips in their Christmas stockings in lieu of a bonus. So, we will be saying goodbye to Johnny DiMera (Carson Boatman) and Chanel Dupree (Raven Bowens) in just a few months.
Now, currently, Johnny and Chanel are going through her high-risk pregnancy, with the breast cancer complication. And there’s corporate drama with DiMera Enterprises, including EJ DiMera (Dan Feuerriegel) doing more bad stuff that Johnny’s having to answer to as CEO alongside Theo Carver (Cameron Johnson), who’s helping him. So, Chanel and Johnny may take their kids and leave Salem to get away from EJ. Unless, of course, Johnny loses Chanel to her cancer. And then he picks up and takes his kids to go live near his mom, Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney), in Italy so he can have help raising Trey and Quattro and get away from EJ.
Tate Black Exits Days
We’ll also see the last of Tate Donovan Black (Leo Howard) and Holly Jonas (Ashley Puzemis) because right now Sophia’s mom, Amy Choi (Shi Ne Nielson), wants to sue Holly in civil court over Sophia’s apparent suicide. Her body hasn’t been found and that means Kristen DiMera (Stacy Haiduk) continues to get away with murder framed as a suicide. But you never know, Sophia might be alive and plotting somewhere.
She could come back and do something to Tate and Holly. Or Tate and Holly could head to Paris to escape Salem drama and Amy Choi and she could pick up and go to the Sorbonne and they could be near her mom Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker) and his uncle Eric Brady (Greg Vaughan).
Also coming soon, Holly and Tate are going to be up at the hospital with Sarah Horton (Linsey Godfrey). And Holly is denying that she’s back on pills. It looks like some were found on her. And she’s screaming at Tate to get out. So maybe they break up. Holly heads to Paris. So, Tate heads to be with his mom, Teresa Donovan (Emily O’Brien), out west.
Days of Our Lives: Lexie’s Six-Month Return and Other Changes
Next, another exit coming up is actress Nikki Crawford, who plays Lexie Carver. Her stint on the Peacock sudser was only a six-month run. So, the actress Nikki Crawford wrapped her run months ago and has moved on. And now it’s just a matter of waiting to see when and how Lexie makes her Salem exit once again.
Her first air date was March 6, so Nikki Crawford’s half a year run should wrap up sometime around early September. And Lexie is already experiencing symptoms from Dr. Wilhelm Rolf (Richard Wharton) resurrection serum. You know, it’s not easy being brought back from the dead after 15 years frozen in a person pod.
To me, this all seems like a big waste of time really to bring Lexie back just to kill her off again so soon. You know, maybe she really won’t die. But we’ll agree to let Ralph and EJ refreeze her in that tube, you know, at least until they can figure out how to bring her back for good. Or maybe Lexie will refuse and decide she wants to pass away peacefully.
Days of our Lives: Kristen DiMera Out
And finally, we’re also going to see Kristen DiMera leaving Salem over the summer. Stacy Haiduk’s character seems to be snatched by EJ or, you know, more likely a goon on his payroll. Once he finds out that Kristen tried to get Sophia to kill Johnny, it’s all over for her. EJ is going to take her out like yesterday’s trash.
Fortunately for Stacy Haiduk, she has moved on to another juicy soap role and is appearing as Patty Williams over on Young and the Restless. She’s absolutely killing it on Y&R, playing basically another crazy bad girl up to no good.
Days Cast Changes and New Arrivals
Also, we are expecting Al Calderon’s last air date as Javi Hernandez at any moment now. Al left when he landed a role on NBC prime time drama Brilliant Minds. But that’s actually kind of bad news for him since it was just abruptly cancelled. It’s not going to get another season. In the meantime, Jacob Martinez has taken over the role of Javi. Things are getting interesting for him right now since his new boyfriend Gus (Michael Ocampo) is moving to Salem after landing a firefighter gig there. We will meet the new hottie on June 30th.
In other comings and goings news, Peter Porte is back as hottie Dimitri von Leuschner DiMera this summer and Gwen Rizczech (Emily O’Brien) just told Leo Stark (Greg Rikaart) she’s getting nonstop hate text from Dimitri who is taunting her to keep spending his money now because it’s not going to last forever. He’s going to get evidence to take her down. So, when he’s back, Leo is trying to get Dimitri to cut a deal with him after he rejects some kind of offer from Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering).
Plus, in early 2027, we are going to see Sofia Mattsson make her Days of Our Lives debut. She was last seen on General Hospital and now she has a new contract role on Days. I think you guys are really, really going to love her. So, right now they are saying that she is playing a brand new character. But me personally, I suspect that that new character might turn out to be Abigail DiMera, basically with amnesia, who turns out to not be a new character. We’ll see. Sofia Mattsson honestly has the perfect look to be recast Abigail. But we won’t find out for another six months.
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