‘The Following’ season 2 spoilers: James Purefoy confirmed to return

There was certainly a major surprise at “The Following” season 2 panel at Comic-Con today, and it revolved largely around one person: James Purefoy. The actor was not originally scheduled to be a part of the show’s panel discussion, but he was an addition mostly via the element of surprise to confirm one thing: Joe Carroll is not dead yet.

In the middle of the show’s panel, Kevin Bacon received a “call” from James on the phone, and then the actor showed up to join the panel. He was not originally going to be a part of the discussion Friday, and thus completely stunned everyone who was in attendance to hear the actors and producers talk about the show.

When it comes to what sort of role we are going to be seeing Joe play moving forward on the show, that does remain very much a mystery. The last we saw him, it looked almost as though his body was being blown up into a million pieces, and there were even dental records found at the scene. However, there was no body retrieved, which always leaves open that tiny bit of hope that he could be coming back.

Judging on what we know about the new season already, Bacon’s Ryan Hardy is not going to be seeing this news coming. At the start of season 2, he will be in a completely different place in his life than he was during season 1, regardless of whether or not Claire (Natalie Zea) really lives to see the light of day. We imagine that much of that stems from his belief that Joe is dead, so we expect this to be a painful shocker.

Do you think that Joe being alive is good for “The Following,” or really too corny for you to be able to stomach? If you want to check out some more of the latest news straight from Comic-Con, just be sure to visit the link here.

Photo: Fox