- Days of Our Lives
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Curtis Harding
Thursday, November 23rd, 2023
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI
Camila Banus’ exit from Days of Our Lives was a long time coming. The actress had finished filming for the show back in April, and viewers were left wondering for months how Gabi would exit. Would she die? Leave town after some disappointment? Simply fade away in Salem as sometimes happens? It turned out, it was none of the above as Gabi was unceremoniously shipped off to prison for a murder she didn’t commit.
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At least, we don’t think she killed Li, but that’s a mystery that may take some time to unravel. Once it does, though, surely Gabi would be set free and given the opportunity to return to town, right?
Banus herself addressed this when she was on Dishin’ Days recently, though she did so in a bit of a roundabout way! It happened while the actress was discussing how much she’d have loved if Gabi’s big sis Arianna hadn’t died. As nice as it was to have big bro Rafe on the canvas, she explained that “it would have been nice to have a sister on the show. Especially Latinas, the closeness there. It would have been nice to have sister traditions on the show.”
With that said, Days of Our Lives could still explore the two sisters down the road because, as Banus pointed out, Gabi’s still around, more or less. “Who knows?” she began. “Gabi went to prison! Gabi could come back as someone else, who knows!”
Granted, even if Gabi did return, there’d still be the matter of Arianna being dead, but in Salem, that’s a condition that’s no more of a problem than the common cold. But it certainly sounds like even if Banus isn’t up to returning once Gabi’s released, there’s a very real possibility that the role could be recast to bring her back!
After all, though Banus played Gabi for 14 years, she herself was originally a recast. And while we haven’t gotten any news that Gabi has been recast, it’s been around seven months since Banus stopped filming, which means there’d have been plenty of time for the show to find someone new to take over role and already start filming Gabi’s big return.
What do you think? Would you want Banus back in the role or would you be up for a recast if it meant bringing her back?
Check out some of Banus’ most memorable moments as Days of Our Lives‘ Gabi Hernandez in our photo gallery below.
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![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (10) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (10)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-gabriella-rodriguez-camila-banus-gabi-jj.jpg?fit=1230%2C718)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI (2)
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<p>Ironically, Banus was not originally cast as Gabi, Gabriella Rodriguez was. “They told me that they wanted to go a little bit younger for the part,” Banus told TheCelebrityCafe.com. “So I put it out of my mind.” A couple of months later —wonder of wonders — the NBC soap decided that they wanted Banus after all. “I actually said no,”she recalled. But the show was so persistent that eventually, “I felt there was something there and that I had to do this.” The rest, as you well know, is history.</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (11) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (11)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-will-gabi-chandler-massey-camila-banus-ps.jpg?fit=1230%2C718)
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
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<p>As anyone would, Gabi became smitten with local hottie Will Horton. But after they spent their first night, ya know, <em>together</em>, he pulled away. Rather than so much as glance at the writing on the wall —her boyfriend was so gay, Pride floats were already being constructed in his likeness —Gabi continued to pursue him with a tenacity that would have dinged anyone’s ego. Well, anyone <em>else’s</em>!</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (12) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (12)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-gabi-chad-camila-banus-casey-diedrich-ps.jpg?fit=1230%2C1183)
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
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<p>Once Gabi gave up on Will —bye, Felicia! — she retraced her steps to her ex, Chad DiMera (then Casey Diedrick), who was so into Melanie Jonas that he wouldn’t have known she was alive if he’d pressed a stethoscope to her chest. So Gabi did what any self-respecting gal would do and… wait, <em>whaaat</em>? She invented a stalker, then hired someone to play the part who was <em>so</em> perfect for it, he planted a rat in her food and took Melanie hostage. Way to commit, bro! Sick and all kindsa wrong, sure, but still…way to commit!</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (13) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (13)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-nick-gabi-will-blake-berris-camila-banus-chandler-massey-ps.jpg?fit=1230%2C719)
Image: Paul Skipper/JPI
4/14
<p>It died. Yep, Gabi had no sooner moved on with Nick Fallon than she discovered that her night of bummer sex with Will — only her second time with him <em>ever</em> —had left her with a bun in the oven. She and her new boyfriend convinced Will that it would be best for all concerned if they just let everyone think that Nick was the babydaddy. And it might have worked, too, had Chad not revealed the truth on the day of the “parents-to-be’s” wedding.</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (14) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (14)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-gabi-kate-sami-nick-river-camila-banus-lauren-koslow-alison-sweeney-hw.jpg?fit=1230%2C718)
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
5/14
<p>Gabi’s relationship with Nick continued to be a source of…well, whatever the <em>opposite</em> of comfort is. They tied the knot, only to annul the marriage after a run-in with the prison inmate who’d raped Nick. On one hand, he couldn’t handle being with Arianna’s mother; on the other, he couldn’t handle being apart from her. Ultimately, they had an altercation in the woods that left him dead — or so she thought —and, thanks to an assist from unlikely allies Kate Roberts and Sami Brady, residing at the bottom of the river.</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (15) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (15)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-gabi-nick-camila-banus-blake-berris-dead-hw.jpg?fit=1230%2C1325)
Image: Howard Wise/JPI
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<p>… and you’re to blame. Yes, Nick, you gave love a bad name. After Gabi’s ex rose from his watery grave, he needed to be put down yet again. (No one in Salem ever seems to <em>stay</em> dead, do they?) So Gabi did the deed, afterwards owning up to it and accepting a sentence of 10 years behind bars. (Or 10 years more than <em>General Hospital</em> mobster Sonny has ever served!)</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (16) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (16)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-chad-gabi-carried-billy-flynn-camila-banus-jj.jpg?fit=1230%2C718)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
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<p>Owing to a sentencing error — thank you, terrible court clerk! — Gabi didn’t wind up spending a decade behind bars. Once sprung from the pokey, she dated JJ Deveraux, who cheated on her with Lani Price, then moved on with “late” bestie Abigail DiMera’s “widower,” her own ex, Chad. Big mistake. Having never read an article like this, Gabi was unaware that no one in Salem ever <em>really</em> dies, so she was completely unprepared for Abigail’s resurrection and subsequent reunion with Chad.</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (17) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (17)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-gabi-threatens-andre-camila-banus-thaao-penghlis-jj.jpg?fit=1230%2C718)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
8/14
<p>From there, things only got worse for Gabi. Her subsequent romance with Eli Grant was done in when she learned that he’d two-timed her with Lani — her <em>again</em>?!? On top of that, Andre DiMera stole from Gabi her design firm, dang it! Bad as all that was, it was only the tip of the iceberg! Gabi was sent back up the river for Andre’s murder — Abigail’s alter, “Gabby,” did the deed (and not with a cellphone, as this image suggests) — resulting in her being beaten so badly that Arianna was destined to be an only child!</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (18) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (18)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-gabi-lani-julie-heart-attack-app-camila-banus-sal-stowers-susan-seaforth-jj.jpg?fit=1230%2C719)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
9/14
<p>Once freed, Gabi entered into a marriage of convenience with the Abby-obsessed Stefan DiMera that, to everyone’s surprise, turned into the real deal…just in time for him to take a meeting with his maker, courtesy of…Oh, you have <em>got</em> to be kidding! <em>Lani</em>?!? Incensed, Gabi deployed a heart-attack app (that no matter how many times we’ve looked, we’ve yet to find!) to threaten Eli’s grandma, Julie, and scare her nemesis outta going through with her marriage.</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (19) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (19)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/days-jake-gabi-kiss-brandon-barash-camila-banus-jj.jpg?fit=1230%2C718)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
10/14
<p>Gabi was stunned — and by this point in her life, it took a <em>lot</em> to even move her to <em>remark</em>! — when she caught sight of an alive-and-well Stefan… or, rather, Jake Lambert, the twin brother that neither he nor Gabi nor his mother, Vivian Alamain, had known that he had. And as rare as it is for lightning to strike the same place twice, it freakin’ <em>did</em>: Before Gabi skipped town, Jake succumbed to her charms just as surely as Stefan had!</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (20) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (20)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/JPI_Episode14301_0001945129.jpeg?fit=1230%2C719)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
11/14
<p>The course of true love ran anything <em>but</em> smoothly for Gabi and Jake. If it wasn’t one thing (his affair with Kate), it was another (the devil slipping into Johnny DiMera’s body and daring Gabi to keep her hands off). The one thing that remained constant throughout the couple’s travails? Whether they wanted to admit it, what they wanted most of all… was each other.</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (21) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (21)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/JPI_Episode14410_0001966873-1-e1662576591722.jpg?fit=1230%2C821)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
12/14
<p>For as long as they’d been circling one another, it was inevitable that Gabi would get naked with mover and shaker Li Shin. What was less certain was whether he’d be able to hurry her down the aisle to form the ultimate power couple before she found out that in the wake of Jake’s death, the <em>true</em> love of her life was had been given a new lease on his.</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (22) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (22)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/jake-gabi-.jpeg?fit=1230%2C719)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
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<p>Talk about weird science! Though when Dr. Wilhelm Rolf plopped Jake’s heart into Stefan’s body, it continued to beat for Gabi, Li ordered the mad genius to reprogram the organ to instead have palpitations anytime the hirsute Lazarus heated up a warm thought of old flame Chloe Lane.</p>
![Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (23) Days of Our Lives Recast? Gabi Could Come Back From Prison Looking Very Different (23)](https://i0.wp.com/soaps.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/JPI_Episode14325_0001949179.jpeg?fit=1230%2C717)
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
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