Days of our Lives co-executive producer Greg Meng has opened up about the "accuracy and inaccuracy" in the media's coverage of DAYS' decision to recast the role of Will Horton.
As previously reported by Soap Central, two-time Emmy winner Chandler Massey announced in June that he'd made a decision not to renew his contract with DAYS so that he could focus on college, and would exit the show by the end of the year. In August, however, reports surfaced that Massey was "blindsided" when DAYS decided to terminate Massey's contract early and hire a new Will.
In an interview with the gaycentric Hollywood web site, The Backlot, Meng insisted that there was "[n]o ugliness, no weirdness" involved in the recasting process.
"It was all done within the family, with Chandler and everything based on his future plans and based on where we needed to go with the story. I even told Chandler, I said laughingly, 'This is your fault because you've created such an amazing character here and the storyline is so amazing and we've got major places to go with that and we can't lose momentum,'" Meng explained. "He was always fine with that, but he's got plans. So it all worked out very well. It's just gotten some misinterpretation out there."
As for the show's new Will, Days of our Lives has hired newcomer Guy Wilson. Meng said that DAYS was incredibly lucky to find Wilson when they did.
"We have an incredible actor on board that is able to take the reins from this role that Chandler did an amazing job creating. And we found somebody who's extremely talented... but more than talented, he's so sensitive to this role and so sensitive to the story and the relationship and all that stuff. So we feel that we were very, very lucky to find somebody who wanted to take the reins," Meng added.
Whether or not fans will embrace Wilson as Will remains to be seen, but Meng is confident in the on-screen chemistry between Wilson and Freddie Smith, Jr. (Sonny Kiriakis), saying that the show "hit gold."
Due to DAYS' production schedule, Wilson's first airdate as Will is not scheduled until sometime in early 2014.
