John Clarke has been asked, but has been ailing himself, so unless Days plans to spring another "secret" filming as they did with LeAnn Hunley (Anna) he will not be appearing. And supposedly, there are no plans to "kill him off". Both he & Frances Reid have lifetime contracts and have been with the show since Day 1. If Alice is still alive and unseen, same will go for Mickey. Kevin Dobson is no longer, evidently, going to be used as Mickey, which is why we saw the pictures.
Maybe the Christmas show is going to show flashbacks…as some storm is going to prevent Mickey from getting back to Salem in time to celebrate Christmas.
Maggie’s big story involves Melanie, I believe, as the two were interviewed together at Day of Days event, and it was Melanie who was gushing over the "huge" story Maggie was doing and how wonderful she was in it.