sonny benard GENERAL HOSPITAL - Episode "14875" - "General Hospital" airs Monday-Friday, on ABC (check local listings). (ABC/Valerie Durant)MAURICE BENARD
Credit: ABC

Over the weekend, the Emmy winner gave a hint of what’s to come.

Ever since General Hospital had Sonny lose his memory and mellow out as “Mike,” a segment of the audience has clamored for the character to return to his roots as the brooding godfather of Port Charles. And over the weekend, portrayer Maurice Benard told them that their prayers were about to be answered.

“Gangster Sonny coming soon,” he tweeted. “Starting next week, a lot of intensity, love and gangster” goings-on.

But, he added, knowing full well how polarizing his alter ego’s post-Carly relationship is, “I’m bringing Sonny back with Nina. Sorry.”

nina sonny GENERAL HOSPITAL - Episode “14920” - "General Hospital" airs Monday - Friday, on ABC (check local listings). (ABC/Craig Sjodin)CYNTHIA WATROS, MAURICE BENARD

Benard knows that “CarSon” shippers are steamed to the nth at the apparent demise of their marriage. That didn’t mean, though, that he wasn’t going to plug Sonny’s new life and love, the same as Laura Wright might Carly’s flirtation with Drew. “The way things work in any new storyline, you always try to give it an extra push,” he explained. “I truly love working with both actresses,” Wright and Cynthia Watros.

“You will see Laura pushing ‘Darly,'” he continued, “and she should. All it means is ‘CarSon’ is on hold for a bit, but it doesn’t mean it’s over.”

Were the situation playing out off screen, it would be another story. “If this were my real marriage, my family would’ve changed the locks, thrown away the key,” Benard said. “But this is soap land, amnesia, wife married with best friend, best friend dies… ”

In other words, here, “you never know.”

Later, the actor laid out the reasons that Sonny couldn’t be exactly the made man that he once was, not after what he’d been through. “It’s not gonna be the same Sonny after amnesia and falling in love with another woman. But I will say,” he hastened to note, “you are going to get badass Sonny.

“I have to play true to the story,” he went on. “He can’t be the same Sonny, but you will get many different sides. You might not dig it, and that’s all right.”

Eventually, Benard realized that some fans just didn’t want anything to change, ever, and the discourse had become less enjoyable than one might have hoped. “Well, you know I love people‘s opinions, I love having fun with them,” he concluded. “But sometimes I have to just stop, go for a walk or something, you know what I mean.”

We do, Maurice. We do. While you’re here, whether loving or loathing the direction of Sonny’s plotline, you can relive all of his past ones via the below photo gallery that retells the dimpled don’s life story.