If you were a Packed to the Rafters fan back in the day, you would know the four Rafters kids; Rachel, Nathan, Ben, and Ruby. Now, they’re back with their parents Dave and Julie but there’s one face that’s different…
Rachel Rafter was played lovingly by Jessica Marais in the hit Channel 7 series, Packed to the Rafters. A few months ago, it was announced that Rafters would return with a spinoff series, Back to the Rafters and that most of the original cast would return, including Marais, to their iconic roles.
However, in February, it was announced that Marais had dropped out of the series to deal with her mental health. For a while, it was unknown what would happen as the show had already started filming. Now, we finally have an answer to the Rachel debacle. The character has been recast with a new actress: Georgina Haig.
Now, if you don’t know who Georgina is, she’s most famous for playing Queen Elsa (yes, that Elsa) in Once Upon a Time’s fourth season. She also starred in the recent mini-series Secret Bridesmaid’s Business alongside Supergirl and Merlin star Katie McGrath.
Meet The New Rachel Rafter
As you probably saw when you clicked this article, the feature image is the set photo that was taken of Georgina with her onscreen brothers, Hugh Sheridan (Ben) and Angus McLean (Nathan). It’s currently unknown if the scenes Jess shot as Rachel will be used or whether they’ll be redone with Haig. It may confuse the audience if Jess’s first few scenes are included, then Georgina is seen the rest of the time. Sometimes it works, sometimes, it doesn’t. Yeah, looking at your awkward recasting of Hayley in Home and Away, where she suddenly became a redhead.
We love and wish Georgina luck and can only hope she does justice to the character!
Back to the Rafters is coming soon to Amazon Prime.
