When Hope Calls Teaser: Lori Loughlin Returns in When Calls the Heart Spinoff

Lori Loughlin‘s Abigail Stanton resurfaces in a promo for When Hope Calls Season 2 — and she’s not the only When Calls the Heart transplant making a comeback.

The WCTH spinoff moves to a new network — GAC Family (fka Great American Country) — with its Season 2 opener, which doubles as a two-part Christmas special. Airing Saturday, Dec. 18, When Hope Calls Christmas sees Abigail and her adopted son Cody (Carter Ryan) bring a troubled boy to Lillian’s orphanage. Abigail also has “a profound conversation with a dear friend from the past,” per the official logline.

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Daniel Lissing, whose When Calls the Heart character Jack Thornton died in Season 5, will also appear in When Hope Calls‘ Season 2 opener.

When Hope Calls marks Loughlin’s first acting gig in more than two years. When Calls the Heart had already completed production on Season 6 when the Full House vet was implicated in the infamous college admissions scandal of 2019. In turn, the Hallmark Channel series went on a brief hiatus and returned three months later, with Loughlin’s scenes scrubbed from Season 6’s remaining seven episodes. Accounting for Hope Valley’s M.I.A. mayor, Erin Krakow’s Elizabeth revealed that Abigail had left town with Cody to take care of her sickly mother out East.

In August 2020, Loughlin was sentenced to two months in prison for her role in the aforementioned admissions scandal. She was also required to pay a $150,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service. Currently on probation, the actress was granted permission by a federal judge to travel to Canada for a week in late September/early October for “a filming production project.” (Her daughter, influencer Olivia Jade, is currently competing on Season 30 of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.)

Season 1 of When Hope Calls bowed in August 2019 as a Hallmark Movies Now streaming original. Reruns eventually landed on Hallmark Channel in early 2020, and was later renewed as a GAC Family Original.

Interestingly, the newly rebranded GAC Family is being run by former Hallmark Channel CEO Bill Abbott, who left Hallmark in January 2020 following the network’s mishandling of a commercial featuring a same-sex wedding.

Press PLAY on the video above for a sneak peek at Abigail and Cody’s return to the WCTH franchise, then hit the comments with your reactions to Loughlin’s second act.

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