Rick Hearst returning to “General Hospital” as Ric Lansing after 8 years: 'Daddy's home'

Hearst originated the role of Sonny Corinthos' attorney half-brother in 2002.

Ric Lansing is coming back to Port Charles.

After being gone for eight years, Rick Hearst will reprise his role as Ric Lansing, the half-brother to the infamous mob boss Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard), on General Hospital beginning next month.

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Hearst originated the role in 2002 and portrayed the attorney until 2009, with Nick Kiriazis subbing in when Hearst had throat surgery in 2007. Hearst then returned in 2014 and stayed on until 2016. Recently, however, Ric has been the topic of conversation between his daughter, Molly Lansing-Davis (Kristen Vaganos), and Sonny's daughter, Kristina Corinthos (Kate Mansi).

Casting director Mark Teschner then reached out to Hearst to see if he'd be interested in coming back one more time.

“My first question was, ‘Really?’” Hearst told TV Insider. “And he said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘What’s the story, what’s happening?’ So then he told me, and I kind of look at it as, ‘Daddy’s home and here to take care of his daughter and anything that entails.’”

Related: Steve Burton says it's 'amazing' to return to General Hospital after firing: 'Always felt like home'

A soap opera veteran, Hearst has appeared on nearly every major daytime drama in his long career, beginning with Days of Our Lives from 1989-90 as Scott "Scotty" Banning II, Guiding Light from 1990–96 as Alan-Michael Spaulding, The Young and the Restless from 2000–01 as Matt Clark, and The Bold and the Beautiful in 2002 and from 2009-2011 as Whipple "Whip" Jones III.

So it's understandable that he may not have allegiance to one particular soap and why he had to do some cramming to catch up with GH and the happenings in Port Charles.

“I’ve been trying to catch up and see what’s happening, and I see that there’s a situation where Kristina is being a surrogate for Molly,” Hearst said. “And while I don’t know what that turns into, I have a feeling there’s going to be some friction by virtue of the fact that one daughter is parented by Alexis and Sonny, and the other daughter is parented by Alexis and Ric. That alone is enough to create a mad amount of drama of who’s going to side with who. And it’s going to be entertaining.”

Hearst's scenes will begin airing on General Hospital the week of Aug. 19 on ABC and streaming on Hulu.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.