As The Walking Dead prepares to say goodbye to its lead, it will also be bringing back an original!

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that Jon Bernthal was a big part of The Walking Dead during the first two seasons of the series. His character showed both the good and the bad that the apocalypse can bring out in a person.

With Andrew Lincoln planning to exit The Walking Dead during season 9, it only seems fitting that Jon Bernthal will make an appearance as Shane. TV Line is reporting that Shane will be brought back for one episode next season.

Of course, since Shane was killed off in the second season, his character isn’t going to making an appearance alive. That means that fans will either be treated to some flashbacks or some of those lovely hallucinations that Rick Grimes has on occasion.

It will be interesting to see if The Walking Dead takes the chance to link Shane to Judith, since the truth about her biological father was revealed back in season 7.

It seems like AMC was trying to keep this guest appearance under wraps, but fans were quick to figure this one out when Jon Bernthal was spotted near set with Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus! Oh well!

Personally, this seems a little desperate to me. AMC must know that they’re on the verge of losing a ton of viewers due to Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan’s exit and are trying to keep things interesting.

I’m always hopeful that the writers will produce good story lines for their characters but this has me a little worried about what might come in season 9. Either way, things can get much worse than they already are…right?