The moment Days of Our Lives fans have been preparing for has arrived. It's time to say good-bye to one of daytime's greatest heroes, as John Black's family and friends come to say goodbye as the character is written off the Peacock streaming soap opera after actor Drake Hogestyn passed away.
Days of Our Lives official YouTube channel gave us our first look at the characters exit storyline as the family visit John in the hospital room to say goodbye.
The promo begins with Kristin (Stacy Haiduk) and her daughter Rachel discussing the night that E.J. (Dan Feuerriegel) was shot. Rachel explains "The night Uncle EJ was shot Johnny was there he was fighting with Uncle EJ he had a gun."
Meanwhile, Maggie (Suzanne Rogers) confronts Xander (Paul Telfer) over his latest actions, saying "The time has come, I will do everything in my power to protect my granddaughter." Afterwards we see Xander being arrested by Jada (Elia Cantu) at the hospital for the assault of Philip.
The promo ended as family and friends visit John's hospital room to say good-bye to the hero. Abe Carver (James Reynolds )visits his longtime friend and says, "we're family John." We hear Marlena's (Deidre Hall )voice over saying, "Family is who sets it in your heart. Who brings you to life, who makes it worthwhile." While we see scenes of Paul (Christopher Sean), Brady (Eric Martsolf), Will (Chandler Massey), Carrie (Christie Clark), Eric (Greg Vaughn), and Belle (Martha Madison) visiting and saying goodbye to their father/grandfather. We then see Steve (Stephen Nichols) is in the church begging God for a miracle saying, "please help my partner." Before ending on a shot of Marlena climbing in bed with John saying, "don't leave us."
Earlier this year we learned that one of the first stories the new head writing regime would tackle is writing out the character of John Black. Hogestyn had to step away from the role he had inhabited since 1986, for an impressive 4425 episodes, as he courageously fought pancreatic cancer. Hogestyn sadly passed away on September 28, 2024. Speaking of this story, the writers said, "While we wanted John to have a heroic and meaningful exit, we wrote the story with the fervent hope that Drake would be able to return someday. John had already been off for over nine months, and there were only so many missions the man could be on. Realizing he might never come back, while praying he would, we needed to craft an exit that honored John, Drake, and the fans."
Days of Our Lives airs weekdays on Peacock.