Coronation Street boss Kate Oates has revealed that Ryan Connor will be returning to the cobbles in the not too distant future – and he will be played by a new actor.
The last time we saw Ryan was back in 2013 when he was played by Sol Heras – and since then Corrie has revisited Michelle Connor’s huge baby swap storyline from more than ten years ago by introducing James Burrows as Alex Neeson.
This latest signing of Ryan will be the start of a huge new storyline for Kym Marsh’s character, Michelle.
Alex is Michelle’s biological son, who she missed out on raising thanks to an accidental mix up at the hospital when he was born.
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Instead Michelle raised Ryan as her son, oblivious to the fact he was actually the biological son of Nick and Wendy Neeson, who’d had a baby boy at the same hospital on the same day.
It wasn’t until the boys were teenagers that the truth came out after Alex became ill and hospital tests revealed he couldn’t biologically be the son of Nick and Wendy.
Kate Oates told Digital Spy that the 2018 version of Ryan has already been cast, but she remained tight-lipped about who the new actor would be.
It is even unknown if the new actor who is stepping into the role is a well-known face to soap fans or not.
This isn’t the first time that Ryan has been recast, as Sol Heras wasn’t the first actor to play the character.
Ben Thompson originally played Ryan between 2006 and 2010 when the original baby swap storyline played out.
James Burrows isn’t the only actor to have played Alex, either. The character was originally played by Dario Coates in 2007-2008.
So just as Michelle is getting to know her biological son, who now goes by the name of Ali, the imminent arrival of Ryan is bound to set the cat among the pigeons once again.
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The two boys notoriously (and understandably) didn’t get on when they met ten years ago – so things are unlikely to have changed much.
But the question remains, what brings Ryan back to the cobbles?
Does he know Ali is already back in Weatherfield? Or is Ryan in for a huge shock when he returns to see Michelle?
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.
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