Days of our Lives‘ Billy Flynn [Chad DiMera] has joined The Young and the Restless as Cane Ashby, bringing a storyline shake-up that Christel Khalil, who plays Cane’s ex-wife, Lily Winters, is happy to embrace.

“I’ve been wanting to be used more, so it’s great to be working a lot more and have something to really sink my teeth into,” Khalil begins. “For a long time, it’s been mainly a business storyline, which has been really fun to play and work with Victor [Newman, Eric Braeden], but it’s nice to have that other layer of emotion and relationship and connection to play as well.”

Khalil reveals she had no idea Cane would be written back in until shortly before Flynn began taping. “Josh Griffith [executive producer and head writer] kept it a secret for a very long time,” she shares. “I didn’t realize they were bringing Cane back until a week or two before he started. I was super excited; it was such a great character, and it was a shame to not have the character there.”

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Although Khalil had never met Flynn, his reputation preceded him. “I heard great things from some of the other cast members who had either worked with him or knew people that worked with him,” she reports. “He’s such a great guy and great to work with.”

But this isn’t a simple “Lane” reunion, Khalil previews. Rather than revisiting the familiar dynamic between Lily and Cane, viewers should prepare for something entirely fresh. “I feel like the story is very compelling, and I think if fans can look at it with a new lens, they’ll really like it,” Khalil says. “I think the good thing that Josh has done is he’s completely changed the character of Cane.

“It doesn’t feel like we’re trying to have someone step in Daniel Goddard‘s [ex-Cane] shoes,” she continues. “It’s pretty much an entirely new character, so it’s been interesting to have scenes because we have the history there, but it’s a little bit different. They’ve also added in flashbacks that Lily has of interactions that she and Cane have had in the past, five or six years [since he’s been gone]. So, it’s almost a little bit of a new relationship again, in a way.”

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Needless to say, Cane’s surprise return will cause major upheaval for Lily. “It’s the first time in Lily’s life that she’s single, and she’s invested in working with Devon [Winters, Bryton James] and Nate [Hastings, Sean Dominic] and just really focused on business,” Khalil points out. “Her kids [twins Charlie and Mattie Ashby] are gone. She doesn’t have a guy in her life, and she’s been focusing on work. So having Cane come back, it’s like the ground kind of falls out from underneath her in a way.”

Which Lily doesn’t appreciate. After Cane reveals himself in France to be the mysterious Aristotle Dumas, “Well, clearly she’s upset,” notes Khalil. “The whole time she thought that this person [Dumas] was somebody else, so it’s a lot of being really upset, feeling betrayed, and feeling like, how could this person that she was married to and have kids with have been lying this whole time?”

Plus, there are other factors for Lily to take into consideration. “Even before Lily finds out Dumas is Cane, the main concern she has is that Dumas is coming after her company,” Khalil explains. “So, when she finds out it is Cane, I think that fear is still there because she hears from Victor and other people that Cane is kind of scheming, and no one really knows what he’s up to. So, she’s really worried. What’s Cane’s plan? Why is he back in Genoa City? What does he want from everybody? What’s he trying to accomplish? Clearly, he’s here for a reason, so I think right now, she’s just trying to figure out what Cane is doing.”

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What Lily is not looking for is to jump back into a relationship with him. “As of right now, no, absolutely not,” Khalil states. “She’s very disturbed by his behavior and how much he’s lied and kept secret and what he’s hidden from the kids and what he’s hidden from her, and the fact that she finds out he was working with his dad, Colin [Atkinson, Tristan Rogers], who is a very bad person. So right now, it’s very much like, ‘I want nothing to do with you. We’re never getting back together, especially after all of this. It’s never happening.’”

As this new chapter unfolds, Khalil urges fans to keep an open mind about the new “Lane” dynamic. “At the end of the day, it’s not going to be the same Cane,” she says. “It’s a completely different person, and I really hope that everybody gives Billy a chance and tries to look at the character through new eyes, because it is a new person, and honestly, it’s a new character. He’s nothing like Daniel Goddard, and that’s kind of the point. The point was to make this character something completely different. And so hopefully people give it a chance and look at it like a new relationship rather than like an old one coming back.”

For Khalil, having a meaty story 23 years into her Y&R run is a pleasant surprise, and one that she never expected. “It’s nice because I started as a kid when I was a teenager, and I was always only a part of the summer teen storyline,” she reflects. “I really thought that I was only going to be on the show for three years and did not anticipate still being there, but I’m so happy that I am. I love this job. I love the people that I work with. And it’s really amazing to be able to play the same character for this long, because the character really does kind of become you. There’s been so many different types of stories that I’ve gotten to play over the years, and it’s been really fun and amazing. I love it.”

The Young and the Restless, Weekdays, CBS, Check Local Listings