Jared Padalecki to Return for Gilmore Girls Revival

The excitement surrounding the Netflix revival of Gilmore Girls ticked up another notch this week when it was announced that Jared Padalecki, who played Rory's boyfriend Dean in the original series, would reprise his role in new episodes that are being produced for the streaming service.

Padalecki will join series stars Lauren Graham (Lorelai) and Alexis Bledel (Rory), as well as regulars Scott Patterson (Luke), Liza Weil (Paris), Keiko Agena (Lane), Kelly Bishop (Emily), David Sutcliffe (Chris) and most of the rest of the original cast. Padalecki currently stars in the WB series Supernatural, which he joined in 2005 after leaving Gilmore Girls.

With the announcement of Padalecki's involvement, the cast of the revival is essentially intact with the exception of two major members. Melissa McCarthy, who played Lorelai's best friend Sookie in the original series, will likely not return because of scheduling conflicts, and Edward Hermann, who played Lorelai's father Richard, passed away in 2014.

The revival of the series will reportedly come in the form of four feature-length episodes to be released all at once on Netflix. The service has not yet announced a release date, but the project went into production at the end of January 2016.