After more than four years off the canvas, Adain Bradley reprises his role as Xander Avant this week on The Bold and the Beautiful.
Don't feel bad if you're asking yourself, "Why?" or need to check out Xander's Who's Who Soap Central character profile to remind yourself who he is.
Some social media postings hypothesize that Xander might be a long-lost member of one of B&B's core families; however, that seems unlikely, since Xander's family has already been established on-screen.
Once prominent on the canvas, the Avant family is barely even mentioned on B&B nowadays. Xander is the cousin of Maya (Karla Mosley) and Nicole Avant (Reign Edwards), and nephew of Julius and Vivienne. Though not seen on the show, Xander's mom and dad have been identified as Maisie and Claude, respectively.
Now that B&B story is shifting away from Eric's life-and-death battle, it seems more likely that Xander is returning to create some trouble for Thomas and Hope. Xander had learned that Hope's supposedly dead baby, Beth, was alive and well and being raised by Steffy Forrester. Thomas, however, stopped Xander from spilling the beans because Thomas worried the truth would ruin any chance he had of having a relationship with Hope. Shortly before Xander was written off the canvas, Xander broke into Thomas' car and learned from his GPS system that Thomas had stopped at the site where Emma Barber's car crashed.
Too much to process? There's a much more detailed account of Xander's history in our Who's Who in Los Angeles character profile. You can read that profile here.
In current story, Xander will find out that his doctor -- Finn -- has ties to the Forrester family. That will serve as something of a trigger for Xander, who will share everything he knows about the various Forresters.
Bradley joined B&B in 2018. The Kansas-born, British-raised actor took a break from the CBS soap opera in 2018 to shoot a film. He began to air less frequently in 2019 and had fans in a panic when he made an "I ain't got no job" post on Instagram. He later clarified his social media post, insisting that he hadn't been fired from B&B. Later that year, B&B revealed that Bradley had been taken off contract.
Bradley makes his first appearance on Thursday, December 28.
Are you surprised that Xander Avant is returning to the canvas? Who do you think his return will spell the most trouble for? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
