List of Home and Away characters (2016)
Justin Morgan, played by James Stewart, made his first screen appearance on 7 June 2016. The character and Stewart's casting was announced on 5 December 2015, alongside Jackson Heywood and Orpheus Pledger, who play Justin's brothers. The actors began filming their first scenes during the week commencing 7 December. Justin is Stewart's first on-going role since he took a year off to care for his young daughter. Like Heywood, Stewart expected Braxton brothers comparisons, but he told Jonathon Moran of The Daily Telegraph, "Creating this family is probably more our priority than taking over the Brax boys. How do you take on Steve Peacocke (Brax)? I hope Australia is ready for it, it is the way it is." In August 2017, Stewart was longlisted for Best Daytime Star at the Inside Soap Awards. The nomination did not progress to the viewer-voted shortlist.
Maggie Astoni
Maggie Astoni is a fictional character from the Australian television soap opera "Home and Away", played by Kestie Morassi. The character made her first screen appearance on 21 June 2017. Maggie arrives in Summer Bay and takes a job as the School Principal of Summer Bay High. She is characterised as a protective mother and career woman. The Astonis are "Home and Away's" first nuclear family to join the soap opera in 17 years, since the arrival of the Sutherlands in 2000. The show had long been missing traditional parent-child stories and used them to fill that void. Maggie was introduced alongside her husband Ben Astoni (Rohan Nichol) and their two daughters Coco (Anna Cocquerel) and Ziggy Astoni (Sophie Dillman). Maggie decides to move to the town to offer her family a happier future. Maggie and Ben married when they were young and her mother did not approve of him. Morassi has described the Astoni marriage as a strong union, noting that they still have "passion and electricity" in their relationship.