{"id":29473,"date":"2026-08-06T06:04:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T01:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29473"},"modified":"2026-08-06T06:04:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T01:04:05","slug":"chris-l-mckenna-to-exit-general-hospital-as-jack-brennan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29473","title":{"rendered":"Chris L. McKenna to Exit &#8216;General Hospital&#8217; as Jack Brennan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGeneral Hospital\u201d has undergone several casting changes in recent weeks, including the exits of <strong>Bradford Anderson<\/strong> as Damian Spinelli, <strong>Kirsten Storms<\/strong> as Maxie Jones and <strong>Nathan Dean<\/strong> as Ethan Lovett, though newcomer <strong>Christian Howard<\/strong> took over the role as of the Monday, July 27 episode, and quickly exited Port Charles by Tuesday, August 4. Another actor said to be exiting the soap in the near future is <strong>Chris L. McKenna<\/strong>, who has played Jack Brennan on the soap since February 2025.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-771023\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While a final air date has not been announced, sources tell <em>Soap Opera Network<\/em> that the character will be killed off in the fall as the show leans heavily into storylines surrounding the World Security Bureau (WSB), the fictional organization in which his character serves as director of operations in Port Charles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McKenna, who began his soap opera career in 1990 playing Joey Buchanan on \u201cOne Life to Live,\u201d took over the role of Jack Brennan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soapoperanetwork.com\/2025\/02\/general-hospital-closed-the-door-return-of-fan-favorites\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.soapoperanetwork.com\/2025\/02\/general-hospital-closed-the-door-return-of-fan-favorites\">following the exit<\/a> of original portrayer\u00a0<strong>Charles Mesure<\/strong>. The actor beat out several soap veterans who reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soapoperanetwork.com\/2025\/04\/daniel-goddard-general-hospital-professor-henry-dalton\">auditioned for the role<\/a>, including <strong>Daniel Goddard<\/strong>, who later landed a limited run on the show playing Professor Henry Dalton, and <strong>Daniel Cosgrove<\/strong>, who appeared in the recurring role of Ezra Boyle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In August 2025, it was announced McKenna had been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soapoperanetwork.com\/2025\/08\/chris-mckenna-contract-general-hospital\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.soapoperanetwork.com\/2025\/08\/chris-mckenna-contract-general-hospital\">upped to contract status<\/a> with the show. In a statement posted on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChrisLMcKenna\/status\/1951496410735714553\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">X (formerly Twitter)<\/a> at the time, the actor said, \u201cThe overwhelming support from you beautiful people helped make it happen.\u201d He added, \u201cAppreciate you all so much. I\u2019d love to give a big old (CLASSIFIED) kiss to each one of you!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though they didn\u2019t share scenes together on-screen, last fall, McKenna had a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soapoperanetwork.com\/2025\/09\/jessica-tuck-director-general-hospital-one-life-to-live\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.soapoperanetwork.com\/2025\/09\/jessica-tuck-director-general-hospital-one-life-to-live\">behind-the-scenes reunion<\/a> with his former \u201cOne Life to Live\u201d co-star <strong>Erika Slezak<\/strong>, who played his on-screen mother, Viki Buchanan, during his three-year run on the since-canceled ABC soap opera. On \u201cGeneral Hospital,\u201d to honor the late <strong>Leslie Charleson<\/strong>, one of the show\u2019s longest-running cast members, Slezak was cast as Ronnie Bard, the newly discovered sister of Charleson\u2019s character, Monica Quartermaine, who in-story had passed away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent months, Brennan\u2019s romance with Carly Spencer (<strong>Laura Wright)<\/strong> ended in a blaze of glory, with the character coming to terms with the fact that his lady love was now entangled with Valentin Cassadine (<strong>James Patrick Stuart<\/strong>) and her inability to forgive him for getting her daughter, Josslyn Jacks (<strong>Eden McCoy<\/strong>), involved with the WSB as an agent, a job that has put her life in danger on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, Brennan has been having an on-again\/off-again flirtation with Nina Reeves (<strong>Cynthia Watros<\/strong>), a nemesis of Carly\u2019s, which has seen the pairing go from locking lips earlier this year to taking it all the way to the sheets last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McKenna\u2019s other credits include roles on \u201cThe Young and the Restless,\u201d \u201cThe Bold and the Beautiful,\u201d \u201cNCIS: Los Angeles,\u201d \u201cNCIS,\u201d \u201cMajor Crimes,\u201d \u201cLucifer,\u201d \u201cS.W.A.T.,\u201d \u201cSEAL Team,\u201d \u201cGrimm,\u201d \u201cRizzoli &amp; Isles,\u201d and \u201cCastle,\u201d among others. \u201cCastle\u201d starred <strong>Nathan Fillion<\/strong>, who, incidentally, would later take over the role of Joey Buchanan on \u201cOne Life to Live\u201d after McKenna.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\" id=\"7a0b4e78becc8ac39a132a1044b38480\" defer async><\/script><script crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v22.0\" id=\"1cfbb80ba5b9b1abe8e5de28754840ba\" defer async><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cGeneral Hospital\u201d has undergone several casting changes in recent weeks, including the exits of Bradford Anderson as Damian Spinelli, Kirsten Storms as Maxie Jones and Nathan Dean as Ethan Lovett, though newcomer Christian Howard took over the role as of the Monday, July 27 episode, and quickly exited Port Charles by Tuesday, August 4. Another&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.soapoperanetwork.com\/media\/2026\/05\/178602_0732-edited-scaled.jpg.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}