General Hospital (GH) spoilers reveal that Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell) is headed off canvas in the new year, so it’s time to start thinking about how he’ll depart the show. There are plenty of ways Michael could leave, but GH writers might’ve just offered a big clue about his looming exit.

In the December 18 episode, Michael put his payback on Drew Quartermaine (Cameron Mathison) in motion.

After leaking a misleading report to one of his contacts, Michael made it seem like Aurora was close to bankruptcy.

That naturally caused the stock price to sink rapidly and gave Michael the chance to scoop up the majority shareholder stake in the company.

Michael temporarily tanked Aurora just so he could buy it up for himself and give Curtis Ashford (Donnell Turner) the CEO spot.

What Michael just did has to be illegal, so will his revenge on Drew cause his own downfall? Could this be how the show plans to write Michael out?

Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros) called the SEC on Drew and Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) for insider trading, which led to Drew landing at Pentonville.

Since Nina is determined to score Willow Corinthos (Katelyn MacMullen) custody of her children, could she find out what Michael did and essentially send him to prison next?

That might be a quick way to alienate Willow if Nina does it without her daughter’s knowledge or approval.

It could be a “Mother knows best” situation that goes very wrong.

Then again, maybe it’ll be Drew who retaliates against Michael – or perhaps there’ll just naturally be an investigation based on how it all went down.

Curtis and Michael acted like they could play the leaked report off as a clerical error, but that may not work once shady news starts blowing up.

If Michael goes to prison, that exit would allow some flexibility.

Michael could easily return to the canvas once he gets out of the slammer if Chad Duell decides to come back or GH Executive Producer Frank Valentini changes his mind about recasting.

This would also eliminate a messy custody battle and explain why Michael won’t be in his kids’ lives for the foreseeable future.

A prison exit would be a clean break to keep Michael out of the picture, so that’s certainly an option for his upcoming departure.

General Hospital spoilers say Michael is on his way off the show one way or another, so stick with us for more exit predictions and updates on what’s in store for him.

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