Fans asked, and Once Upon a Time creators listened: Robin Hood will be returning to Storybrooke in Season Six!

At the end of last season, we saw the unfortunate death of the kind thief. Sources now say that Sean Maguire, who plays Robin Hood, will reprise his role in multiple episodes this season. It has been said that he isn’t necessarily coming back from the dead, but it is rumored that he will be returning in some sort of flashback or some other way that will surprise fans. The direction the writers are heading toward is still under wraps.

Executive Producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis told EW:

“We’re thrilled to have Sean back for this story arc and are excited for the audience to see what we have planned, which in the wake of his character’s heartbreaking demise, is something we hope is unexpected and surprising.”

During last season, Hades (Greg Germann) planned to use the Olympia Crystal to kill Regina (Lana Parrilla), which, according to him, meant the person affected by it would not go to the underworld or the afterlife. In the Season 6 premiere, however, Henry (Jared Gilmore) gave Regina a sliver of hope, telling her that Hades was lying and that Robin’s soul did in fact move forward after his death.

The fate of Robin Hood was first teased at San Diego Comic Con, where Horowitz and Kitsis explained that some of the characters would question Hades’ truth but with the understanding that Robin Hood would not be coming back to life. Questions arose regarding the possibility that Robin could “pull a Hook,” referring to the resurrection of Hook (Colin O’Donoghue). Kitsis put a fork on that assumption, saying, “‘I don’t see that happening,’ would be the respectful answer to our fans.”

“We see those tweets every day — all 3,000 of them, every two seconds,” Kitsis said of the fan fervor over Robin Hood’s death. “We’ve had loss on this show, we’ve had people come back. We’re not going to the Underworld this year, so I can tell you that a lot of this year is about Regina dealing with loss and moving on, because I think Regina has the most unfair luck of anybody, but that’s what makes her Regina.”

“By moving on, we don’t mean falling in love with someone right away,” Horowitz added. “That’s not realistic to us. This was someone she did love, who she did lose. We hope that we deal with that grief and its aftermath in a real way.”

Besides (maybe) seeing him as Robin Hood in Once Upon a Time, you can also catch Maguire in NBC’s new fall drama Timeless as James Bond author, Ian Fleming.

Once Upon A Time airs Sundays at 7/8c on ABC.

What do you think about the news? Are you excited for Robin Hood’s return? Let us know in the comments below.