Will Horton
Will Horton is a fictional character from the American daytime TV soap opera Days of Our Lives, known for a highly praised coming out story, award-winning performances by actor Chandler Massey, and as one half of US daytime drama's first male gay wedding and marriage. The character first appears in the episode of November 16, 1995, when his mom Sami Brady gives birth to him. Initially portrayed by a series of child actors, the character grew up in real-time as the show aired, eventually to be played by adult actors Chandler Massey, and Guy Wilson.
The character is initially named Will Reed, after his presumed father, Austin Reed, but it is later revealed that Austin's half-brother and Sami's friend Lucas Roberts is his father. Sami and Lucas fight each other for custody, and Will, who is renamed Will Roberts, has a "tumultuous upbringing". As a child, Will endeavors to bring his parents together, whilst his grandma Kate Roberts schemes to keep them apart. Will sees success when his parents marry in 2007; and his newly united family take the name Horton, to distance themselves from his grandma Kate. Cast in the role when Will was 17, Massey played Will's transition to adulthood and is noted for his portrayal of Will coming out as gay and beginning a same-sex relationship with Sonny Kiriakis. Massey's performance and the coming out storyline received high praise: Glamour magazine said it "has never been done better – not on primetime, daytime, or in feature films", and "it's raw, it's touching" and "honest to the core"; and soap journalist Michael Fairman called Massey's performance "beyond sensational". Will and Sonny became the show's first same-sex supercouple, and in 2014 Guy Wilson took over the role of Will as Days broadcast the first male gay wedding in US daytime drama history.
The character was graphically murdered in the episode of October 9, 2015, with Will being shown strangled to death, lying dead in the morgue, and being buried and grieved by his family. Viewers reacted with "major" backlash, the decision was highly criticized by professionals, and there was a feeling Days of Our Lives was pandering to anti-gay sentiment in its audience base. In January 2017 Days of Our Lives announced a new head-writer in Ron Carlivati; and in May 2017 Entertainment Weekly reported that Massey was reprising the role of Will. Carlivati indicated, via social media, that Will may not have died after all, and the ensuing storyline showed how Will survived. Massey's new episodes played from September 15, 2017 to September 1, 2020, and he returned again for the Christmas season in December 2020. In the fall of 2021, he reprised his role as Will in the Days spin-off miniseries Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem, on the Peacock streaming service, and later headlined the spin-off Days of Our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas, in December 2021. Beginning in March 2022, Massey would again start making appearances on the main series, in a recurring role.
For playing Will, Massey won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series in 2012, 2013, and 2014, becoming the first to win three years in a row in that category, as well as the first to win it for playing a gay character.
Casting
Identical twins Shawn and Taylor Carpenter originally played Will. They were only six weeks old when they started, and they portrayed Will from babyhood until six years old. In 2002, Days decided they wanted a trained young actor playing Will, and nine-year-old Darian Weiss was cast, and the character was rapidly-aged three years. A year later, Christopher Gerse took over as Will. Gerse was able to attend regular school while working on Days, including playing on his school's basketball team, just like his character. In 2005, Days were again planning to rapidly age Will, and were "actively seeking out a new actor to play the role" — but the plans were shelved when a new storyline for the younger Will "became available", and Gerse was retained to "preserve the believability of Alison Sweeney and Bryan Dattilo as his parents". Will was not aged again, and Gerse continued until 2007 when Will was temporarily written out. In addition, for one episode in January 2008, Gerse provided Will's voice for a phonecall.In 2009, Will, now sixteen, was reintroduced with actor Dylan Patton. In 2010 the role was again recast with Chandler Massey, the first adult in the role, reportedly to facilitate a new storyline. Before he started, Massey watched as many old episodes as he could find to familiarize himself with the character. In 2013, his younger brother Christian played Will in flashbacks for the episode of February 8. In June 2013, after Massey's second Emmy win, he told reporters he would vacate the role to return to university when his current contract expired. Executive Producer Ken Corday said, "I wish he would stay. I keep telling him to change his mind, don't go away.... The door will always be open here to Chandler. We are not going to recast Will, but I wish him well". Massey said he supported a recast, saying "I don’t want Will and Sonny to break up. I want them to be together forever and go off and get married", and "I want what is best for WilSon!"
In August 2013, it was reported Massey had left Days, and the show had recast due to the character's current storyline "and the timely discovery of new talent"; and in September 2013, it came out that Guy Wilson was cast in the role of Will. Wilson later revealed that when he tested for the role with his costar Freddie Smith, Smith did not know that Wilson was reading for the role of Will, saying "I wasn't supposed to tell him". Wilson said "the whole experience was a soap opera, because everyone knew something that someone else didn't know." Smith said the on-screen switch between Massey and Wilson would happen as quick as the news of the recast, saying, "If you blink and open your eyes, you'll be like, 'Wait, there's a new Will?!
On May 8, 2017, Entertainment Weekly announced that Massey was reprising the role of Will, airing in September. Massey told the publication: "I am so excited to be bringing Will back I can't wait for the fans to see what we have planned"; and Wilson expressed "joy" about Will's revival, and happiness that Massey was "back in the saddle as the steward of such an important LGBT icon". Massey made his return in the episode of September 15, 2017. Then in February 2020, it was revealed that Massey was again let go from the serial, with his last appearance airing September 1, 2020; but Executive Producer Ken Corday said Will would be "returning on and off", and Massey re-appeared as Will in the 2020 Christmas season.
In February 2023, it was announced Massey would again exit the role. On October 3, 2024, it was announced Massey would reprise the role, when Will returned during the May 30 episode.
Development
Characterization and family
When Will is born, his mother Sami is in love with Austin Reed and desperately wants to marry him. To this end, she has convinced Austin that Austin is Will's father. So Will begins life with Austin as his father, and the two develop a "strong bond" as father and son. Austin is "beloved" by Will, and their strong bond continues even after it is revealed, two years later, that Will is actually the son of Austin's half-brother, Lucas Roberts.Initially Will is a quiet child; the twins who initially played Will, and who started on the show as babies, had a tendency to be quiet in front of the cameras. But when, in 2002, Will was aged to nine years and Darian Weiss cast to play him, the character was given an outspoken streak; a trait that was carried on with later portrayals.
Will's parents, Sami and Lucas, fight each other for custody of Will for several years, and Will's chaotic upbringing has an influence on his character. The Sony Pictures web page for Will stated his "turbulent upbringing" made the young Will "moody and suspicious", however About.coms character profile said Will overcame the turmoil of his upbringing, and grew up to be a "kind-hearted" and "level-headed" teenager. In an early interview, Massey said Will is "a great guy.... he kind of had an interesting upbringing, but he turned out to be a really good kid, very forgiving." Massey added: "He doesn’t like being lied to, definitely, but that happens all the time to him. He's very mature for his age. Sometimes it seems like he is the parent in the relationship" ; Massey said: "He’s like the voice of reason in his family." Will has a relationship with his dad Lucas that is more than father and son – they are "best friends". As a big brother, he is close to his siblings.
Will also has a close relationship with his Grandma Marlena, his "most-trusted confidante", who helps him through his struggles to come out. She tells Will he is "one of the bravest men I've ever known". Wilson said Will is "very passionate about everything he does". Will has a long-time best male friend in Tad "T" Stevens – played by Brendan Coughlin, who has played opposite Patton, Massey, and Wilson. With his best female-friend, Gabi Hernandez, Will is the father of Arianna Horton. Arianna's birth was portrayed on the show, as was Will's and his mother's. Will is a great-grandson of the show's original couple, Tom and Alice Horton.
Will begins a romantic pairing with Sonny Kiriakis in September 2012, and they marry in April 2014. Talking about Will and Sonny's relationship, Massey said Will "being insecure" creates drama, but Will and Sonny were "by far the most stable, most logical and loving" couple on the show. Wilson called the couple "great communicators", and "one thing that Will and Sonny have is a sense of humor"; and Massey felt "they complement each other. They cover each other’s flaws and mesh very well.”
Beginning with the marital conflict storyline that kicked off in the fall of 2014, commentators thought Will was written as if he had had a sudden "full-on personality transplant"; and in January 2015, in the midst of Will and Sonny's relationship difficulties, Will breaks his marriage vows, and has sex with his interview subject, the star baseball player Paul Narita – who turns out to be Sonny's ex, and the son of Will's step-grandpa, John Black. Sonny leaves Will in August 2015. Will endeavours to fix things with Sonny, and they are on the verge of re-uniting when Will is strangled and written out of the show.
At Will's revival in 2017, Massey talked about how the character had changed, saying: "He has grown up to be very much like his mother Sami, which is fun to play. Will can be bitchy, like Sami", adding fun-to-play characteristics can be fun for the audience too, saying "audacity can be very entertaining"; and he later told Soap Opera Digest that Will has "all the impulsiveness and scheming tendencies of Sami". In another interview he said Will can be "very sneaky". Massey also enthused about the characteristics of Will that he loves playing, saying "I love how mad Will can get sometimes! And I love that Will can yell at people. And I love that he is fearlessly protective of Ari, his daughter. And he's not afraid to confront and embrace confrontation. In real life that's discouraged – yelling at people is largely discouraged – but on Days of Our Lives that's how people thrive! I like being able to explore Will's wide range of emotions, and really being able to go there in ways that you can't always in real life."
In the show, Will cheats death, but is left with total amnesia of his life before – and Massey discussed the challenges of playing a character who does not know his own past or family: "It was almost like starting with a blank canvas again. Amnesia’s often associated with some pretty drastic personality changes, so it was a chance to completely recreate Will’s personality in some sense… and yet I also tried to stay faithful to the kind of things that might be hardwired into his body.” In the storyline, amnesiac Will is shocked to learn that he cheated on his husband, and hates thinking he is the type of person who would do that. Wanting to understand, he seeks out Paul to find out how it happened and finds himself "super attracted" to the athletic young man. Amnesiac Will really likes that Paul accepts him as he is, without expectations of who he was before, and he spontaneously kisses Paul on two occasions. Will realizes he has "no business being married to anyone", and in March 2018 he divorces Sonny, whom he does not remember at all. Will and Paul become a couple,. Will and Sonny reunite after Will regains his memories.