It is happening again, and it's happening in just a couple of days!
Twin Peaks returns to our screens this weekend, 26 years after the end of the series and 25 years after the debut of its prequel movie, Fire Walk with Me.
The revival premieres on Sunday, and so far, we know strangely little about the 18 episodes that Showtime is bringing us. Creators David Lynch (who directed every new episode) and Mark Frost are remarkably good at keeping their secrets, but they haven't kept everything a secret.
Little bits of info have come out here and there, but most of it has only given us more questions to ask, especially when it comes to the cast. How are dead characters returning? Who are the new cast members playing? Is Dale Cooper actually Dale Cooper, or is he still the doppelganger possessed by BOB?
We can't give you answers, but we can give you this list of everything we know about the return of Twin Peaks so far, even if—just like the owls—everything is probably not as it seems.
Which major players are back?
Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper, Mädchen Amick as Shelly Johnson, Dana Ashbrook as Bobby Briggs, Richard Beymer as Ben Horne, Sherilyn Fenn as Audrey Horne, James Marshall as James Hurley, Kimmy Robertson as Lucy Moran, Harry Goaz as Andy Brennan, Peggy Lipton as Norma Jennings, Everett McGill as Ed Hurley, Wendy Robie as Nadine Hurley, Michael Horse as Hawk, David Duchovny as Denise Bryson, Grace Zabriskie as Sarah Palmer, Catherine E. Coulson as The Log Lady, Phoebe Augustine as Ronette Pulaski, Miguel Ferrer as Albert Rosenfield, Carel Struycken as the Giant, Russ Tamblyn as Dr. Lawrence Jacoby, Al Strobel as Phillip Michael Gerard, Walter Olkewicz as Jaques Renault, and David Patrick Kelly as Jerry Horne.
Even Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer/Maddy Ferguson and Ray Wise as Leland Palmer will be back, despite their characters being dead.
We'll also see more of the Jumping Man, the Roadhouse Singer, the cook at the Double R Diner, and even David Lynch as slightly deaf FBI agent Gordon Cole, who plays a "pretty prominent" role in the new season.
Which major players are missing?
Lara Flynn Boyle will not be returning as Donna Heyward (and neither will her Fire Walk with Me portrayer Moira Kelly, even though we'll see her father and sister). We also won't be seeing anyone from the mill, including Josie Packard (Joan Chen) or Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie), or Shelly's abusive husband Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re), which is just fine with us. Heather Graham also won't be back as Cooper's girlfriend Annie.
The sheriff was originally played by Michael Ontkean, but he has retired from acting and has been replaced by Robert Forster for the new episodes.
Many cast members have also passed away in the years since the show ended, including Don S. Davis (who played Major Briggs), Jack Nance (who played Pete Martell), Dan O'Herlihy (who played Andrew Packard), and Frank Silva, who played the real face of BOB.
Who are the newbies?
There are a lot, but a few names you might recognize include Laura Dern, Amanda Seyfried, Michael Cera, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jim Belushi, Ernie Hudson, Trent Reznor, Naomi Watts, Tom Sizemore, Eddie Vedder, Robert Knepper, Ashley Judd, Monica Bellucci, David Koechner, Matthew Lillard, Francesca Eastwood (daughter of Clint Eastwood), Brett Gelman, Josh McDermitt, Ethan Suplee, Jessica Szohr, Elena Satine, and Tim Roth...just to name a few.
Who are they playing?
Your guess is as good as ours, though one popular theory is that Dern is finally giving a face to Cooper's mysterious secretary, Diane.
Agent Cooper, 25 years older, is still the show's "anchor."
Part of the revival's premise has to do with dream scenes from the original series in which Cooper was 25 years older, and dream Laura Palmer says she'll see him in 25 years. The new season takes place 25 years after Laura's death in in 1989.
Only MacLachlan even got to read the entire 400-page script. Other actors only got to read the scenes they appear in.
The structure will not be the same.
The original series revolved around Laura Palmer's death, but that's not the case this time. The original plan for the revival season was a script of 400 pages, which was then to be shot all the way through and edited into episodes.
"It's going to be very different this time around," Frost told Variety. And Lynch told EW that "it's a feature film in 18 parts."
The show takes place in the same locations, but also ventures to other parts of the U.S.
Much of the filming took place in the original filming location of Snoqualmie, WA, but a lot of it also took place in Southern California, with multiple threads in different parts of the country eventually converging.
Fire Walk with Me, the 1992 prequel movie that told more of Laura's story, is very important to the revival.
The movie was released in 1992 and critically panned, but it gives a lot of insight into Laura's life and her murder at the hands of her insane father and further explores the mystical White and Black Lodges.
The episode descriptions are incredible.
On the Showtime site, at least the first eight "parts" have been given some truly unique descriptions.
Part 1: My log has a message for you.
Part 2: The stars turn and a time presents itself.
Part 3: Call for help.
Part 4: ...brings back some memories.
Part 5: Case files.
Part 6: Don't die.
Part 7: There's a body all right.
Part 8: Gotta light?
It will blow your mind.
That's what Mädchen Amick told us when we talked to her at Riverdale's PaleyFest event, along with a few other important tidbits.
"I think David Lynch and Mark Frost did such a good job of just continuing the story 25 years later," she says. "We're not trying to revisit anything, but I think that the fans will love and enjoy a lot of the nostalgia, and things that will be revisited, but it kinda spins us off in a new direction, and I just think it's going to blow everyone's minds. I think as the first series did for television, this new season, I think it's going to do it again in a different way. It's going to break the mold once again."
Twin Peaks premieres Sunday, May 21 at 9 p.m. on Showtime. The first two hours will air at once, then two more episodes will be available immediately on demand.