Guy Pearce has confirmed he will make an appearance in the upcoming Neighbours reboot, after Amazon swooped in to revive the long-running Australian soap.
The LA Confidential and Memento star began playing Mike Young in 1986 and appeared in more than 400 episodes over three years. Along with former Neighbours stars Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Margot Robbie, Pearce returned for what was thought to be the show’s finale in July.
In the 90-minute episode, Mike was reunited with his former love interest Jane Harris, played by Annie Jones, with the pair buying a house on Ramsay Street.
Speaking on the Good Weekend Talks podcast, Pearce said that given his character was now living on the soap’s famous street, he would appear in the new season out of respect for the show.
“Annie and I called each other, ‘What do we do now, because we’re living in the street,’” Pearce said. “And she said, ‘Well I’m all right because I’m on the show anyway, but what are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ So we’re in the process of working it out.
“Obviously, if I’m going to extricate myself from the show, I want to do it respectfully. I wasn’t just gonna go, ‘Well, bad luck. You had your chance, that was it,’ you know. So there may be a little appearance or two, shall we say.”
The soap was set to finish after a 37-year run, when the UK’s Channel 5 decided to stop airing it. But three months later, Fremantle announced that Neighbours would be revived with Amazon on board as new production partners. The surprise move was based on the response to the finale, which attracted 1.2 million viewers in Australia and 3 million in the UK.
Pearce previously made some pointed comments about the show’s surprise return, saying Amazon’s decision “makes our finale look like a rather expensive exercise” and suggested Robbie could ask for the return of a crate of champagne she had sent the show’s producers as a farewell thank you present.
“I don’t want to say [it was a] waste of time. But still, I’m sure that Margot will be happy,” he said in December, while presenting at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) awards.
Another actor confirmed to appear in the Neighbours revival is Mischa Barton, with the former star of US teen drama The OC set to play a “dynamic and unpredictable” character.
Neighbours will be available to view on Channel 10 and Amazon Prime in Australia and on Amazon Freevee in the UK and US when it returns in the second half of 2023.