Giovanni Rufino / The CW, Trae Patton/ NBCEver notice a striking resemblance between Zachary Levi and Quantum Leap star Scott Bakula?
Well, Chuck and Gossip Girl producer Josh Schwartz has, and reveals to us that he has cast Bakula to play the much-anticipated role of Chuck and Ellie Bartowski's long-lost father later this season.
"Scott will be leaping onto our show for three episodes," Schwartz tells us. [See what he did there?] "We're very excited."
So what will Chuck's daddy dearest be up to? And how about some exclusive details on Schwartz's other just-announced series: Lily and Rufus in Love, aka the Gossip Girl spinoff?
"They haven't seen each other for a long time," Schwartz says of Papa Bartowski (Bakula). "His dad is a little bit of an eccentric. He's a sweet man, but has been off the reservation for a while. Chuck promised Ellie he would find him for the wedding, and when he finds him, he may not actually want to be found."
When asked if he will write this season's finale as a series finale, Schwartz replies: "Call me a guy in denial, but we're not going down without a fight. These episodes are going to dramatically change the show. We're putting it all out there. We're doing crazy, crazy stuff, and we're actually breaking the season finale right now, and it's going to be a really fun ride."
As for the just-announced Gossip Girl spinoff, which centers around a young Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford), Schwartz reveals: "I'm writing it right now with Stephanie [Savage] as we speak. We're being very, very careful that nothing we do will feel like we are biting off from the Gossip Girl original."
So will a young Rufus appear? "Not at first," Schwartz tells me. "He's not one of our characters. Maybe at some point, if the show is lucky enough to run for several seasons, it will come up, but it's just really about Lily and her sister Carol, Serena's Aunt Carol, who's sort of this free spirit, a wannabe actress who's living in this house in the valley. Her experience on the other side as someone without money going to public school, having to make a whole new group of friends, being cast out from the world that she knew."
The spinoff will be presented as a flashback in the penultimate episode of the current season of Gossip Girl, which airs May 11. Schwartz says none of the roles have been cast yet.
So what about the No. 1 fan question: What will happen with Chuck and Blair? "You don't actually want to know the answer to that. The fun is in the journey."
Maybe so. But I'll have some details for you in the next Spoiler Chat, just in case some of you fans think that's fun, too.
What do you think about Chuck's father's casting and how the Gossip Girl spinoff sounds? Sound off below.
—Additional reporting by Natalie Abrams