Ryan Paevey Opens Up About Nathan’s ‘GH’ Return, Possible Dark Turn and Missing Maxie (Exclusive)
The soap star dishes on rebuilding without Maxie, vibing with Lulu and what's ahead in 2026
As Nathan West spends his first Christmas with his son James on General Hospital, Ryan Paevey gets candid with Woman’s World about his character finding his way in Port Charles without Kirsten Storms’ Maxie, vibing with Alexa Havins’ Lulu, and heading into 2026 with lots of messy, soapy possibilities. In addition to dishing on his slow-roll return to General Hospital, Paevey responds to speculation around whether good cop Nathan’s being alive is somehow tied to his villainous “late” father, Faison.
After taking a break from acting, the soap opera star reveals he’s also back to making movies… but is Paevey ready to play Hallmark hunk, again?
Paevey thinks it would be ‘rad’ if Nathan turned out to be evil
Since returning from the dead right on the heels of Kelli Thiebaud’s very alive Britt this fall, General Hospital good guy Nathan West has been quietly rebuilding his life.
“We’re still a bit of a ship adrift, with Nathan trying to pick up the pieces of his fragmented family,” Ryan Paevey says. “Maxie’s gone, but James is in town, so I’m forging a relationship with my son, getting my job back, and all that basic stuff.”
What the amnesiac is seemingly not doing? Mourning the fact that he woke up to find Maxie in a coma, and trying to figure out where he’s been since he was shot dead by his father in 2018!
While this has viewers wondering if Faison’s Dudley-Do-Right son has somehow gone dark, Nathan’s former PCPD partner Dante didn’t hesitate to reinstate him as a detective.
“It wouldn’t be the first time the PCPD has displayed questionable judgment,” Paevey cracks. “Look, Faison’s a beautiful wild card, and wouldn’t it be rad if Nathan turned out to be evil? Everybody likes Nathan, and being liked is very usable. That would be a hell of a hell of a way to infiltrate the circles of all these fine, upstanding citizens and gain their trust and gain access. I have my hopes… but I don’t really know anything, at this point.”
On Nathan being ‘untethered’ from Maxie
With showrunner Frank Valentini a fan of soap icon Agnes Nixon’s “Make ‘em wait” philosophy of storytelling, nothing has been revealed about Nathan’s time away. Instead of digging into that, Nathan is focused on the daunting task of finding his place in Port Charles without Maxie—which has Paevey traversing new terrain in his old stomping grounds.
“When you’re in a very popular couple, almost everything you do is seen through the filter of the couple,” he explains. “Nathan certainly had no life outside of it. We had a brief foray into his parentage, and then that came back up again to accomplish my death, so to speak. But for the most part, Nathan wasn’t really Nathan: Nathan was Naxie.”
“To be untethered to that and get to navigate the full GH canvas, work with new people and characters, and do things I’ve not done before is interesting,” he continues. “It’s been a trip to step back into Nathan’s shoes. To be working with old friends like Dominic (Zamprogna, who plays Dante) again, hanging out with Fin (Hughes, who plays Anna) in the halls, and running into Maurice (Benard, who plays Sonny) has been cool.
“But it’s also been fun getting to futz around with different faces,” he says of the newcomers and recasts who’ve joined the show since he left. “I’m sort of the ghost of Christmas past for them, and they’re all great actors. GH has a spectacular cast.”
Talking possible romance with Lulu
One of those spectacular new faces belongs to Lulu—who is still rebuilding her own life since recast Alexa Havins brought the fiery Spencer back last year. With Valentin back on the scene, Nathan has stepped up to play protector and found a confidante in Dante’s ex and Maxie’s bestie.
“It’s always good to have a love interest on a soap, and Nathan could certainly do worse than Lulu,” Paevey says. “Will we or won’t we? We have a lot in common, so we commiserate. And there’s definitely chemistry there, so I’m interested to see. From a storyline standpoint, that’s some good drama. Nathan and Dante, back in the day, were best friend, and then Maxie and Lulu… There’s all kinds of friction there.”
“And working with Alexa is awesome,” he adds. “We have fallen into a very comfortable, easy routine. We get the nuts and bolts of the scene down, and then we’re free to play.”
‘We don’t know when Maxie’s returning’
With Maxie’s absence allowing Paevey to flirt with new leading ladies, many viewers are anxious for Kirsten Storms to bring her character back to canvas. After the actress shared she was taking a break from the show to move to Nashville this summer, in October she offered an update about a health crisis involving a brain aneurysm.
“We don’t know when Maxie’s returning,” Paevey says. “But I know Kirsten loves this place, and I would like very much to see her back in her happy place.”
“Also, from a canvas standpoint, I’ll be interested to see what it does to our… situation,” he adds. “Things have been set into motion that could clash with her return, shall we say. I will be curious to see how these things evolve and how serious they get.”
How his decision to ‘retire’ was premature
As Nathan is re-finding his groove on General Hospital, so too is Paevey—who’d stepped away from the acting and moved to San Diego almost two years ago.
“Taking care of my family motivated me to take a break from the biz, and then also to return,” he shares. “And maybe my decision to ‘retire’ was premature. I’d had my 15 minutes and I have Fortunate Wanderer, my jewelry business that does quite well, so I just worked as a silversmith and did my thing.
“But I felt a little selfish stepping away from an opportunity to work in a fun industry that takes good care of me and enables me to take better care of my family,” he continues. “So I cast a net into the universe and said, ‘Okay, I gotta do something,’ and then [General Hospital showrunner] Frank Valentini texted. It was fortuitous timing.”
Paevey addresses reuniting to Hallmark
Never one to do anything halfway, Paevey has since returned to acting full throttle.
“I’ve got a few films lined up for 2026, and I was just in Barbados for what is probably the most beautiful film I’ve ever shot,” he teases. “It’s an adventure flick—think Indiana Jones meets Romancing the Stone. There’s surfing in the film, so we saved that for the very end and it turned into a little vacation. We just surfed for three days straight. It was awesome.”
Unfortunately for Hallmark fans, Paevey reveals he has not teamed back up with rom-com giant… yet?
“We’ll see,” he hedges.
‘I’m looking forward to seeing where our bubbly cauldron goes’
In the meantime, with General Hospital on hiatus, this Hallmark alum will probably do a bit of work over the winter break—but as 2025 comes to a close, he’s ready to decompress this Christmas and New Year’s.
“I’m exhausted,” Paevey admits to Woman’s World. “Movies are back, television’s back, I’m making brand deals, I’m keeping my business afloat. I’m busier than I’ve ever been… but imagine if there was no work to be had! I’ve felt that fear before, so I’m grateful that at this phase in my life, there’s a lot of motion in the ocean.”
As for Nathan’s action on General Hospital, whatever’s to come with Maxie and whether his character turns out to be trouble or the good guy he’s always been, Paevey has high hopes for 2026.
“There’s all kinds of question marks, and they’re all aimed in interesting directions,” he concludes. “We’ve got a bit of a bubbling cauldron here, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.”
“And should Nathan ever get to dip his toe in the dark side,” Paevey adds, “it will be interesting to see what it feels like to find myself on the other side of the fence from all these really nice people who I like in real life… but become my enemies in fake life!”
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