General Hospital comings and goings: Michael E. Knight returns as Martin Grey

When General Hospital's Martin Grey boarded a plane last February to visit his beloved mother, fans wondered if they had seen the end of Michael E. Knight's time as part of the Port Charles scene. Now comes word that Knight is bringing the character back to the ABC soap.

Michael E. Knight is back on General Hospital

Back in February, Knight didn't think he'd be gone for as long as he was, but GH's multiple head writing shakeups this year delayed things.

"It was supposed to be three months," Knight told Soap Opera Digest. "By the time it got to August, I was thinking, 'Okay, well, you know, no harm, no foul.'"

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When the writing situation settled down with Elizabeth Korte and Chris Van Etten named co-head writers, Knight got the call he had been waiting for.

"My first loyalty is to Frank [Valentini, executive producer], always," Knight said. "And when Frank called me and told me about bringing me back and gave me the lowdown [about the show’s plans for Martin], I was a very happy guy."

Knight even gets to reunite with more former All My Children co-stars this time around, including Eva LaRue (Maria Santos, AMC; Natalia Ramirez, GH) and Alexa Havins (Babe Carey, AMC), who was just cast as Lulu Spencer. As longtime ABC soap fans know, Knight played the iconic AMC character of Tad Martin off and on (but mostly on) from 1982 until the soap was canceled in 2011, and many fans think his Martin Grey character's name is a nod to his AMC role.

While Knight can't say exactly what brings Martin back to Port Charles, he expects Martin to make his mark in his usual way.

"People used to ask me, ‘Well, what’s your role on General Hospital?' And I would say, 'It’s kind of like paprika. You don’t use it a lot but you use it to sort of spice things up,'" Knight explained to Digest.

What will Martin be up to?

Before Martin left town, he was on the outs with ex-girlfriend Lucy Coe after he learned she slept with Scott Baldwin. Currently, Scott is missing in action, Lucy is without a man, and Port Charles is down a lawyer.

Could Martin return to town to put his savvy legal skills to work? With Alexis in desperate need of a lawyer as she's charged with the murder of FBI agent John Cates, Martin could be the answer to her prayers. Could he also be the cure for Lucy's loneliness?

Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu.