BRANDON BARASH DISHES ABOUT DAYS RETURN

There’s another look-alike in Salem — a dead ringer for Gabi’s late husband, Stefan O. DiMera — and Brandon Barash is back in the newly created role of Jake, a rough-around-the-edges auto mechanic.

“I had no idea I’d be returning,” admits Barash, noting that things were set in motion with “a surprise phone call. Casting called and said, ‘We’ve been thinking about this. We realized we made a mistake when we wrote [Stefan] off. A lot of people were upset to see you go. Would you be interested in coming back?’ ”

Barash, who had kept busy after his DAYS departure, was open to hearing what the show had planned. “There are a couple of passion projects that I was working on,” he shares. “One is a TV show [based on his Instagram page The Fathership with his pal Tyler Poelle] and one is a book. I’ve put a different hat on and have been doing some writing, and that’s been going very well. Between those and raising my daughter [Harper], that’s what I was focused on.”

So when DAYS reached out, Barash simply responded, “ ‘Yeah, if we could make this work, I’d be interested,’ ” explaining that he was told a story was going to be pitched to the network. “If they approved it, they said they’d be in touch. And we know how the story ends.”