The Young and the Restless Comings and Goings: Notorious Villain Poised For Return!
As the new year begins, Young and Restless will pick up one of the dangling plot threads from 2025 and continue digging into the mystery of the awful secret that Mariah (Camryn Grimes) has been harboring, which has all but destroyed her life. On the Friday, January 2, 2006 episode, Mariah will once again be haunted by Ian Ward, which means that fans can anticipate another appearance from the Daytime Emmy-winning actor Ray Wise.
Trouble in Mind
After kicking off his acting career in 1970, playing lawyer Jamie Rollins on Love of Life for six years, Wise went on to appear in prime time series like Twin Peaks, 24, Reaper, and Savannah. On the big screen, he could be seen in movies like Swamp Thing, RoboCop, and Jeepers Creepers 2. Wise returned to daytime in January 2014 to join Y&R as the sinister leader of the New World Cult, Ian Ward, which he played until July 2016. He took home the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Appearance in 2015 in a three-way tie with General Hospital’s Donna Mills (ex-Madeline) and Bold and Beautiful’s Fred Willard (ex-John).
Wise made an unexpected return to Y&R in November 2024, when he was revealed to be working with Jordan Howard (Colleen Zenk) to destroy the Newman family. After being shot by Victor (Eric Braeden) in January 2025, Ian was presumed dead, but as the ambulance was transporting his body to the hospital, he opened his eyes, revealing to the audience that he was still alive, if not yet kicking. At the time of that exit, Wise told Soap Opera Digest, “I was very happy that they kept the door open for Ian to make a return at some point.”
Ian did return for an episode on October 22 (with a brief appearance in the cliffhanger tag of the previous show), though not in the flesh. This time around, Wise reprised his role as a figment of Mariah’s imagination as she confronted him while seeking treatment at a mental health facility. “He’s so good at being bad,” Camryn Grimes enthused to Digest at the time, adding, “Ian is sort of this iconic bad guy on the canvas. So any time I’ve gotten to work with him, I just count it as a feather in my cap as far as my career.”
Ian is still clearly living rent-free in Mariah’s head if she’s still being haunted by what he has put her through over the years. But even if she manages to evict him and put the fractured pieces of her life back together again, that still might not even be the end of it. What Mariah and everyone else in Genoa City don’t realize is that Ian is still out there somewhere biding his time, which means that Wise could one day return to the soap as Ian Ward in the flesh!
Influencer: Will Mariah (Camryn Grimes) ever be free of Ian (Ray Wise)?