In 2002, Executive Producer Louise Berridge decided to reintroduce the character 8 years after she had last appeared. Auditions were held to cast the role to a professional actor; however, auditionees were not informed which character they were auditioning for. The first audition was a group workshop of 30 auditionees, who were asked to perform improvisations. After whittling down potential actors from 500 to 4, the second stage of the audition process was an interview with "EastEnders"' Casting Director. The auditionees were asked to perform a monologue in front of a camera and do a screen test with one of the actors already in the show, Christopher Parker, who played Spencer Moon. 17-year-old actress Scarlett Johnson was cast: "At the second audition they gave me a monologue to read, but they'd been really careful about it. They hadn't said what the character's name was, they didn't give away anything in the monologue that might tell me who I was auditioning for. So I didn't know until I got the part who I was going to be playing—I'd been guessing for ages!" Asked how she felt when she knew she was playing Vicki Fowler, a character linked to the show's early history who is the daughter of 2 prominent original characters, Johnson said: "I felt very honoured, but it was quite scary. I knew there'd be a lot of people out there with expectations of what she'd be like. But it's good fun actually. It means you don't have to introduce yourself to everyone. You can really play with that [...] My family are "EastEnders" addicts, we've watched it our whole lives. I remember the first Vicki, I remember Michelle and I definitely remember Dirty Den! My knowledge of the show really helped a lot, because I didn't have to do any research into the character. When I joined the show, I felt like I was meeting the actors for a second time. I'd already met them in my home on TV, then I had to actually meet them in real life!" The character made her reappearance in January 2003, turning up unexpectedly at her grandmother Pauline's (Wendy Richard) house.