Days of our Lives Comings and Goings: 4 Shocking Firings, 5 Major Recasts & Epic Twists Coming!

Days of Our Lives blows fans away with huge casting news. It’s a veritable hiring and firing bloodbath over at the NBC Peacock soap opera. There are four huge firings that just happened and another five recasts coming that are going to change everything on Days.

From Chad DiMera (formerly Billy Flynn) to Johnny DiMera (Carson Boatman) and Rachel Black (Alice Halsey) to Arianna Horton (Marissa Reyes), we’re going to dive into all the comings and goings about to rock Days of Our Lives with some exits coming any day now.

Massive Days of Our Lives Firings Following Holiday Hiatus

So, there was a holiday hiatus at the soap opera where they took a few weeks off shooting for Christmas and New Years. And when they returned, four cast members had pink slips waiting for them. They were abruptly fired.

They haven’t had a mass firing this big since the March 2023 Albert Alarr debacle when Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker), Gabi Hernandez (formerly Camila Banus), Belle Black (Martha Madison), Shawn-Douglas Brady (Brandon Beemer), and Chloe Lane (Nadia Bjorlin), just to name a few, were affected.

Not all were outright fired. But some were dropped to barely recurring and decided they couldn’t do it and they left. Some have come back since then, particularly after Albert Alarr himself was fired under a cloud of suspicion and allegations of inappropriate onset behavior towards female cast members.

Carson Boatman and Raven Bowens Axed from Peacock Soap DOOL

This time, though, there were four fired: two women and two men. Carson Boatman was let go and so was Raven Bowens and, of course, they play the roles of new parents Johnny DiMera and Chanel Dupree.

Plus, Tate Black actor Leo Howard and Holly Jonas actress Ashley Puzemis were also axed. And they play teen scene couple Tate and Holly. So, some of these four were rumored to be in the middle of contract negotiations. But reportedly not all.

Now we have to talk about what this means for the storylines and other characters on Days of Our Lives and how Johnny DiMera and Chanel Dupree and also Tate Black and Holly Jonas are going to exit. We’ll get to those five big recasts also in just a moment. But first, we’re going to talk about the four recent firings.

Potential Days Exit Storylines for Johnny and Chanel DiMera

First of all, Johnny and Chanel, as you know, just adopted little Trey. They’re expecting another baby as well. Johnnys worried about the high-risk pregnancy. But Chanel is over the moon excited.

Johnny’s also worried that Chanel’s cancer may come back mid-pregnancy. Because Sarah Horton (Linsey Godfrey) warned them they wouldn’t be able to detect the cancer. Because the same hormones, hCG, that her cancer emits are the same hormones pregnancy emits.

The writers could do an awful storyline to set up their exit and have Chanel die in childbirth from cancer while their baby survives. Then, a distraught Johnny takes his two young children and maybe moves to Italy to be near his mom Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney) for moral support, childcare, and family help. That is a very plausible scenario to set up Chanel and Johnny’s exit.

Will Johnny and Chanel Move to Hollywood for a Happy Ending on Days of Our Lives?

But another happier and more optimistic exit for the two, though far less soapy, would be that Chanel’s pregnancy is healthy and they leave Salem. Because Johnny lands his dream job in Hollywood.

If you recall, Lucas Horton (Bryan Dattilo) recently mentioned Johnny’s big brother, Will Horton (Chandler Massey), is working on a new movie script and couldn’t be home for the holidays. So, maybe Johnny gets a job offer to work with Will. And he and Chanel head to LA. She already told Johnny that she can bake anywhere.

This would let Johnny and Chanel ride off into the sunset together with their two kids. So far, there’s been no talk of recasting either role. Given the 9 to 10-month tape-to-air delay, we should see Johnny and Chanel exiting around November or so in 2026, which would coincide with the timing of her giving birth.

The DOOL Future of Tate Black and Holly Jonas in Salem

That also means Holly and Tate are going to exit in late 2026. Right now, Holly and Tate are happy. They’re in love. They’re navigating college life. And they’re part of the active teen scene alongside Aaron Greene (Louis Tomeo), Arianna Horton, and bad girl Sophia Choi (Rachel Boyd).

This week, Arianna sees Sophia during one of her Bayview escapes. But she doesn’t stop her. And she does head back to the mental hospital. 2026 spoilers say that she’s soon targeting Holly again.

Meanwhile, Brady Black (Eric Martsolf) wants Tate to take over running Basic Black someday. But Tate’s flunking out of college—which doesn’t seem like CEO material—and the line may be shut down by Xander Cook (Paul Telfer) and may not even exist anymore despite what Maggie Horton Kiriakis (Suzanne Rogers) promised.

Will Holly and Tate Leave for Paris or Split Up?

Right now, Holly is also feeling meh about her job working for Stephanie Johnson (Abigail Klein) after she took all that holiday time off in Paris to see her mom Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker), her stepdad Eric Brady (Greg Vaughan), and her baby brother Jude.

An easy exit for Holly and Tate is that they could pick up stakes and just move to Paris. Holly is missing her family there and she’d already been accepted into the Sorbonne. I’m sure that Paris has some community college that lackluster student Tate Black could attend or a technical school where he can learn trade work.

Or the writers could break them up. We know that very soon Holly’s acting like a real witch and being nasty to both Tate and her bestie Ari. It could be the sorority she wants to join that makes her a bad seed.

If they split, Tate may head to California to be with his mom, Theresa Donovan (Emily O’Brien), and Holly could head to Paris alone. As of now, there is no sign that they’re going to recast Tate and Holly either. But we also know Days is a revolving door when it comes to casting. And they don’t mind swapping out actors willy-nilly.

Billy Flynn Exits Days of Our Lives as Chad DiMera Recast Begins

Speaking of recasts, there are five coming. And that means several exits are going to happen soon with replacement actors slated for a spring 2026 debut.

We expect to see the last of Billy Flynn as Chad DiMera within the next few weeks. He began filming over at Young and the Restless in May of 2025. And that means his Days exit comes soon.

There’s going to be a bit of a gap before his replacement Connor Floyd debuts as the new Chad DiMera on April 21st. We know that Connor Floyd started taping at Days about a month after Billy Flynn left, so we’ll have at least four to eight weeks of air date gaps on our Chads.

New Days Faces for Thomas DiMera, Rachel Black, and Arianna Horton

Also in April, we’re going to get a new Thomas DiMera (Christopher Cary). But the recast actor’s name is not confirmed yet. We don’t know if it’s going to be the same age or if they’re going to do a SORAS. Christopher Cary landed a job on an Amazon series and he is expected to exit the same time as Chad DiMera.

We’re also going to say goodbye to Alice Halsey sometime in early 2026. That role has definitely also been recast. But there’s no air date or name for her replacement yet. Alice Halsey left the role of Rachel Black. Because she landed the main role on the Little House on the Prairie reboot.

Also, Al Calderon has left the role of Javi Hernandez. His on-screen exit comes in May 2026. Al Calderon landed a primetime gig on the NBC medical drama Brilliant Minds. Look for an actor swap in late May or possibly early summer.

Arianna Horton Recast and Days of Our Lives Behind-the-Scenes Changes

Finally, we’re going to see Arianna Horton exiting Days in March of 2026. There is an unnamed recast filming who debuts in April 2026. This casting swap comes at the end of a one-year contract with no explanation coming for why they recast Arianna. But the actress is already working on new projects. There’s a ton of comings and goings activity at Days of Our Lives, along with changes behind the scenes with executive producers that may be driving some of these cast changes.