Al Calderon is set to depart the long-running NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives after landing a regular role on another of the network’s shows. The 31-year-old actor has played Javi Hernandez since February last year, but the character is now to be recast.
Calderon will play Nurse Scotty Silva in the second season of Brilliant Minds, a series inspired by the life and work of author and physician Oliver Sacks. He will be joined by fellow newcomers Brian Altemus and John Clarence Stewart.
In a statement to Deadline, representatives for Days of Our Lives said: “We do not comment on the contract status of our actors, but fans should not worry, Javi is alive and well in Salem.”
Calderon’s exit represents just the latest casting change at the show. Last month, the soap aired a heartbreaking onscreen death for Drake Hogestyn’s character, John Black, eight months after the actor died in September 2024 at the age of 70 from pancreatic cancer.
In the episode, John is seen in hospital after being wounded in a lab explosion while searching for an experimental drug to save Bo (Peter Reckell). With his face bandaged, he is visited by his wife Marlena (Deidre Hall) and family. Marlena tearfully told him he had given her and their four children “all the love we will ever, ever need”. Hours after the episode aired, Hall, 77, called it the “hardest day ever”.
Peter Reckell, who returned as Bo, told TV Insider that “there was no acting required” while filming John’s memorial scenes, adding: “To have to do it as a character was really difficult.” In November, executive producer Ken Corday revealed that Hogestyn had signed off on his character’s ending before his death.
