New Head Writer Ron Carlivati Previews What's Ahead on 'Days of our Lives'

New Days of our Lives head writer Ron Carlivati previews what's ahead on the iconic NBC soap opera in the new issue of Soap Opera Digest. Carlivati's first episode airs on Wednesday, July 19.

"There will be focus on the vets because I love writing for vets," he tells the magazine. "I came in with a goal at the beginning to not bring in anybody new, to write for the people I had, so you'll see at the outset and for several months that there's some familiar faces returning, but nobody new."

Carlivati also teases the return of Chandler Massey to the cast.

"I think the assumption is that that means that's Will," he says, "but in a world of evil twins and doppelgangers and look-alikes, you never know. I'm an outsider, so I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong, but it seemed like the death of Will Horton was not a popular decision and was viewed as a mistake."

Days will find out early in 2018 whether NBC will renew the show for another year.

"We just wrote Christimas and New Year's, and that's stuff will be airing next January into February sweeps, which is right around when that decision gets made," Carlivati reveals. "I want this show to be really good because I want them to say, 'Of course we're picking it up!'"

Check out Carlivati's entire interview in the new Soap Opera Digest.