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If 2025 was a year of questions on Days of Our Lives, it looks like 2026 may finally give us answers! At least, that’s what we gleaned from headwriters Paula Cwikly and Jeanne Marie in a recent interview with TV Insider. We already got the news that the new year will bring a trio of recasts — some expected, some not — and now we’re getting a glimpse, not just as the coming weeks, but all the way into the fall! 

The Truth Behind Marlena?

If you thought Marlena’s Lyme disease diagnosis was a bit anti-climatic, don’t worry, you weren’t the only one. There are entire threads dedicated to how it all shook out, including over on our own Message Boards! What was the point of struggling for so long just to find out she needed some antibiotics? What about those Queen of the Night dreams? No, it seems like there has to be something more behind what’s ailed Marlena. And we may finally get answers in 2026.

As Cwikly and Ford tell TV Insider, we’ll be seeing Marlena embark on a “quest in early 2026,” and it sounds like it’s going to play out through much of the year. Because it won’t be until the fall that it “kicks into high gear” when she gets “life-changing news.” We know that’s awfully open-ended, but put that together with everything else she’s been going through since John’s death, and it sounds like we may finally be getting to the bottom of things. Lyme disease… As if!

The House of DiMera

If we look at what Peter accomplished in kidnapping and trying to kill all of Stefano’s heirs, along with his motives, it can be a bit of a head-scratcher to figure out what the point of all that drama was. That is until we realize that we’re likely building towards the winter preview moment with EJ leading the “House of DiMera.”

As the headwriters tell it to TV Insider, the crypt has left “the majority of the DiMeras more united than ever.” But that doesn’t include Kristen and EJ “who take their family feud to the next level.” Even if she didn’t want to let Peter kill EJ, Kristen’s not about to forgive him for Rachel being sent to Bayview. But if everyone else is united behind EJ, that may just leave Kristen out in the cold, warring with her very powerful, very united siblings all on her own. But hey, we’re sure she, of all of them, can handle it!

Lexie, Redux?

And then there’s the Carver family. Abe and Paulina are about to hit “an unexpected obstacle,” Cwikly and Ford tell TV Insider. And to top it all off? “Theo’s life is about to be turned upside down.”

Put it all together with how EJ’s behaving with whomever is in his green tube and his apology to them after getting out of the crypt, it sure as heck seems like we’re about to get a Lexie revival. We’ve been pondering the idea for some time now, and the further along we get, the more likely it seems! She died when Theo was just a child, so her return would be huge for him. And besides the emotional ramifications Abe would be faced with between Paulina and Lexie, there’s also the technicality that she’d still be Abe’s wife!

Of course, this all comes with a caveat, because while Lexie’s looking more and more likely, there’s no signs that Renée Jones would return to the role. When she left the show in 2012, she also retired from acting, and that hasn’t changed in 14 years. But if Days of Our Lives did convince her to return to Lexie after all these years? Resurrections are a bit old-hat in Salem, but that would truly be an incredible moment.

Relationships 101

It’s not all drama and secrets, though, as love will be looming large in 2026. Well, OK, there’s plenty of drama that comes along with that, but of a different kind! As the new year gets under way we can look for a Shawn and Jada do-over, Cat growing closer to EJ (though the jury’s still out if it will blossom into a genuine connection) and Gabi’s secret betrayal looming large over her and Philip’s relationship.