The Days of Our Lives writers are back! Well, they’re almost back. The official onscreen transition from the temporary Writers’ Strike scribes to headwriter Ron Carlivati and team will happen this Friday, May 31. And after a half year of stories, it is guaranteed to shake things up.

As Carlivati told TVInsider, “If you’re watching, keep watching, and if you’ve dipped out a little bit, it’s a great time to dip back in.”

There’s no clear indication of what stories will be played with and what dropped by the wayside, but among the revelations to come out of the strike material have been Everett’s multiple personalities, John, Steve and Konstantin’s Pawn past, Johnny and Chanel’s baby worries and even Alex and Kristen’s growing fling. And no, they were likely not a part of the official plan back when the strike started.

“I think some people think that I left some sort of road map that these people were following,” Carlivati noted to TVInsider, “and that is really not true.” The transition happened over the holidays so the strike writers could, he explained, just hold off on any big changes while they hit the family notes.

“To the credit of the show, I think what they tried to do was move things slowly in the hopes that the strike would end and respect where my storylines were so that I could play them off when we came back.” But instead of ending, the strike dragged on and the show material lasted through May of 2024. And, as Carlivati noted, “Those were not my stories”

But now, after May 31, the regular writing team’s material is back and we can expect some quick direction changes! Much like the 2008 Writers’ Strike when Carlivati was writing for One Life to Live, he wasted no time in righting the ship back to where he wanted it. The method? “Blow things up, jettison anything that I did not like, and get back to a show that I understand and can enjoy and tell.” Some things might take a bit longer to wind down, but others are going to be dropped pretty darn fast. “We jumped in with our own stuff as quickly as we could.”

The good news for Days of Our Lives’ headwriter is that while some of the big stories he set up had begun to come to fruition, for the most part, he got to wrap them up.

“Xander did not find out he was really Victor’s son and Alex did not find out he was not Victor’s son and Theresa was not outed,” he told TVInsider. “So that is something big I will still get to play.”

Check out the full interview with TVInsider here to read more about the return and what’s to come with the show’s 15,000th episode and Doug’s farewell. And stay tuned, because everything from the last half a year is about to be turned on its head!