Meet The Actor Playing General Hospital's New Ethan Lovett

Considering Holly Sutton (Emma Samms) first came to Port Charles as a con artist on "General Hospital" in the 1980s, it's no surprise that her son Ethan Lovett also had a checkered past — including running occasional cons of his own. Actor Nathan Parsons played the role from 2009 to 2012, with occasional returns over the years. The last time Ethan was seen on-screen was in 2020 when Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) and Olivia Falconeri (Lisa Locicero) were trying to track down a missing Holly.

It turned out that Holly had been kidnapped by the evil Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy), and he had not only killed her sister Paloma Perez (also Samms) but also kidnapped Ethan to force Holly to do his bidding. With the help of Robert and Felicia Scorpio (Kristina Wagner), Holly's fiery fakeout exit allowed her to get out from under Victor's control, as she pretended she had a catastrophic burn injury and set out to find Ethan. Now, as Victor's reign of terror kicks into high gear, Felicia met up with Holly at a hotel just off the Venezuelan coast to get the former con artist's help. Holly had tracked Ethan to the island, and the two women bribed their way into an auction. They were shocked to find Ethan himself was a captive and was put up for bid — with the winner allowed to kill him!

Fans were also in for another shock.

On the most recent "General Hospital" episode, the fans were astounded to see that Ethan wasn't being portrayed by Nathan Parsons as expected but by a newcomer to the show, James Ryan. ABC revealed to Soaps in Depth that Ryan will now be playing Ethan, but the network hasn't stated how long his run will be. Considering Emma Samms is only appearing for a short time to help wrap up Holly Sutton's storyline, it's unknown if Ethan will stay beyond that. One fan was cautiously optimistic about the recast, tweeting, "Hmmm.... I'll reserve judgment on #NewEthan. To be honest, I'm just glad that 'GH' decided to listen to the viewers who have been asking to bring Ethan back for now. Taking this as a win for now." Many fans were disappointed that Parsons had not reprised the role, but the Twitter conversation then took a turn toward speculation. 

While Ethan's father is the legendary Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary), there was a time when it was believed that Robert Scorpio could be his dad. One fan noted that on Twitter, posting, "We have a new #EthanScorpio! Let's have him stick around so he can find out [his] real dad is Robert!" 

While the dust settles over fan reaction to the recast, the debate over who is really Ethan's father will undoubtedly continue.