Erica Kane may be heading back to the small screen.
Daytime icon Susan Lucci confirmed in a new interview with “Extra” that two Lifetime films built around her signature “All My Children” character are in active development — and that she’s hopeful about reprising the role that made her a household name for more than four decades.
“Lifetime wants to do two movies,” Lucci, 79, told “Extra” correspondent Mona Kosar Abdi in the segment, shared on X May 9. “[Fans are] clamoring for it, and I hope that it happens.”
The Lifetime project is being shepherded by two of Pine Valley’s own. Kelly Ripa, who played Hayley Vaughan, and her husband Mark Consuelos, who played her love interest Mateo Santos, are developing the films through their production company, Milojo — a project first reported by TV Line’s Michael Ausiello in September 2024, when a Lifetime representative confirmed two films were in early development, with one expected to be holiday-themed.
More on Susan Lucci’s Likely Return to AMC as the Iconic Erica Kane
Ripa, who met Consuelos on the soap in the early ‘90s, also confirmed the project on her SiriusXM podcast “Let’s Talk Off Camera” back in January.
For the uninitiated: Erica Kane isn’t just a mere character. She’s a cultural institution and arguably the most beloved character in daytime history. Lucci played her on ABC from January of 1970, to September of 2011 — the show’s entire 41-year network run — racking up 18 consecutive Daytime Emmy losses before finally taking home the trophy on her 19th nomination in May 1999. Her win drew a two-minute standing ovation at Madison Square Garden, with Oprah Winfrey cheering loudly and Rosie O’Donnell visibly crying happy tears.
The character’s background is the stuff of soap legend. Across 41 years, Erica married 11 times to eight different men, survived a plane crash, talked down a grizzly bear, battled drug addiction and ran a cosmetics empire. TV Guide once called her “unequivocally the most famous soap opera character in the history of daytime TV.”
Lucci, for her part, became the highest-paid actor in daytime television, with a salary reported at over $1 million a year by 1991. Now, she’s very likely bringing Erica Kane and all her dramatics back to our television sets.
“All My Children” itself is a piece of TV history. Created by Agnes Nixon, the soap debuted in 1970 and aired its final ABC episode after the network cancelled it in 2011. The series briefly limped on with an online revival via Prospect Park in 2013 before going dark entirely.
What Has Lucci Been Up to Lately?
GettyLucci, meanwhile, isn’t slowing down. After a seven-year acting hiatus, she returned to the screen in Jonah Hill’s dark comedy “Outcome,” opposite Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz. Back in 2023, she received the Daytime Emmys’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Her second memoir, “La Lucci,” hit shelves in February. She also did a four-week off-Broadway run last year in Joy Behar’s “My First Ex-Husband.”
Lucci has also weathered her share of off-screen heartbreak. Her husband of 52 years, Austrian-born chef and food-service manager Helmut Huber, died in March of 2022, at age 84. The two married in 1969 and raised two children together, daughter Liza and son Andreas. Lucci has spoken candidly about the depth of the loss in the years since, and about how she has managed to find joy in life with her partner gone.
Some of that joy, it seems, could be found in returning to the character that made her famous. Erica Kane is poised to remind a new generation why she was, and remains, daytime’s most magnificent troublemaker — and her fans are more than ready for it.
