Marci Miller as Abby Deveraux DiMera on Days Of Our Lives
Credit: Chris Haston/NBC

“I don’t want them to [recast]… from a selfish standpoint.”

The town of Salem is still reeling from the death of Abigail DiMera, and so are many Days of Our Lives fans. In her own way, Marci Miller feels their pain. Because while it ultimately was her decision to walk away from the part, she’d hoped that Abby might be given new life via a new actress stepping into the part.

“I understand why they made the choice they did,” she recently told Soap Opera Digest of Abigail’s death. “I don’t love that they made the choice that they did.” Although Miller and her team worked with the soap to try and find an equitable solution which might keep her on in a recurring manner, that simply wasn’t possible. And so, poor Abigail wound up being murdered in her own bed.

In their bedroom, an anguished Chad hovers his hands over Abigail's lifeless body, sprawled over their bed

More: This Days alum would love to return, pronto! 

But every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case it might be the fact that nobody really dies in Salem. But how would Miller feel if the show opted to have Abigail return with a new face? As it happens, she would not only reluctantly approve, but is surprised it wasn’t the route they opted to go with. “I totally expected them to recast,” she revealed. “That’s what I really thought would happen, and that’s what I thought they should have done.”

She is, of course, relieved on some level. “If I want to play Abby, I want to be able to do it, from a selfish standpoint,” she admitted.”But from a fair standpoint, for Billy [Flynn, Chad], for the fans, for everybody, I personally felt like they needed to find a woman who wanted to come in there and be Abby, sign a contract for a few years, stick around and do the story justice.”

More: Billy Flynn defends Abigail’s killers

Given that Days didn’t recast, might Miller return should the opportunity present itself? “We’ll see,” she said. “It depends on what’s going on in my life. I never say never, but I’m not coming back next year.”

Should the show opt to recast, who might land the plum part? Check out our picks to play Abigail below, and let us know who you think we might have forgotten.