‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 6 spoilers: Jimmy Smits will appear in all 13 episodes

Great news if you, like we did, felt that Jimmy Smits was the best part of “Sons of Anarchy” season 5: not only is the actor returning as Nero, but he will be a part of all 13 episodes.

Sources confirmed the good news Thursday, and it follows the lead of everything we have heard from executive producer Kurt Sutter ever since the end of season 5: it was long known that he was interested in bringing Smits back for more episodes, but the real debate was whether or not the actor would have the time in his very busy schedule in order to play Nero again. The fact that Sutter managed to get him for another full season is a surprise, but the show does definitely benefit from his talents and Nero’s chemistry with Gemma (Katey Sagal).

The one interesting wrinkle in this casting is that TVLine claims that Smits is technically not going to be a series regular, which to us is unusual for a big-name actor who is appearing in more than one season of a show for multiple episodes. It’s hard to really speculate as to the reasoning behind this, but it could be that this frees Smits up easier in the future to take on other parts as he sees fit, since he is not necessarily locked into the FX series in the long-term. (Then again, Sutter has only expressed an interest in doing one more season beyond this one.)

Filming on this new season is expected to begin in May, with the premiere slated to happen (as always) around the middle of September.

Are you thrilled for more Nero on “Sons of Anarchy,” and what do you want to see happen with this character? As you may also know, it was confirmed earlier this week that Donal Logue is going to stick around as Lee Toric for a good chunk of the new season, as well.

If you want to see some scoop on another new series Sutter is developing, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: FX