With excitement building on the upcoming return of Neighbours, more and more returning cast members are slowly being drip-fed to eager fans across the globe who desperate to know who will be living on Ramsay Street or popping into Erinsborough in 2023 and beyond.
The first wave included the Neighbours “big four” legends; Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher), Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne), Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) and Toadie Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney).
Also confirmed to be returning full time from the 2022 cohort are Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou), Jane Harris (Annie Jones), Leo Tanaka (Tim Kano), Mackenzie Hargreaves (Georgie Stone), Melanie Pearson (Lucinda Cowden), Wendy Rodwell (Candice Leask), Andrew Rodwell (Lloyd Will) and Sadie Rodwell (Emerald Chan).
Neighbours have also confirmed the return of Lucinda Armstrong-Hall as Karl Kennedy’s daughter Holly Hoyland, plus a new character Haz Devkar (Shiv Palekar) who will be the new owner of Harold’s Cafe.
Today, the new Varga-Murphy family were announced; Cara (Sara West) and her wife Remi (Naomi Rukavina), who is a doctor, and their sons JJ (Riley Bryant) and Dex (Marley Williams).
Then we know that Chloe Brennan (April-Rose Pengilly), Elly Conway (Jodi Gordon), Harold Bishop (Ian Smith), Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell), Mike Young (Guy Pearce) are back in a guest capacity alongside star of The OC, Mischa Barton as new character Reece Sinclair.
Amongst the unconfirmed include Matt Wilson as Aaron Brennan, whose partner seemingly confirmed his return through Instagram; Takaya Honda as David Tanaka, who updated his acting profile recently to include the new series of Neighbours and Mal Kennedy actor Benjie McNair’s agent confirmed he would be returning though swiftly edited their Instagram post to remove such information.
Last week, pictures of Michelle Scully (Kate Keltie), Brett Stark (Brett Blewitt) and Melissa Jarrett (Jade Amenta) seemingly on set appeared on Facebook. In one image Keltie and Blewitt were seen holding a sign reading “Think of the children – save our future – Erinsborough High School”, suggesting the former pupils could be back to save the school from closure.
We’ve also seen pictures of actors who appear to be Nel and Hugo Rebecchi, with former child stars Scarlett Anderson and John Turner confirming they are not reprising the roles and they have been recast. Nicolette Stone is also returning, albeit recast according to usual actress Charlotte Chimes in an Instagram live. Callum Rebecchi actor Morgan Baker has been spotted in the background of a behind the scenes video.
Actor Costa D’Angelo has also been named in the press as appearing in the new version of the show.
There isn’t long to wait now to see all of our old (and new) neighbours on screen, with all new episodes airing from September.
Update: On 15th July, it was announced that former Big Brother Australia contestant Xavier Molyneux is joining the show as a recast Byron Stone. On 1st August, a new cast photo showed that Henrietta Graham will be reprising her role as Sam Young.
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