Jared Padalecki, who co-stars as Sam Winchester on Supernatural opposite Jensen Ackles' Dean Winchester, talked to reporters recently from the set of his new movie, a remake of Friday the 13th. He told IESB.net (among others) that he'll be returning to the set of Supernatural in July, earlier than usual due to the possible SAG strike. "The strike is a huge issue...they want to have [Supernatural] airing with Smallville and Smallville starts shooting really early so they want us to start shooting really early also so they can air new episodes of each together," the actor explained.

Season 3 ended with the older Winchester brother, Dean, dead and in hell, the culmination of a season long story arc after Dean traded his soul to save Sam's life at the end of season 2. Padalecki says he hasn't read any of the season 4 scripts or spoken to Executive Producer Eric Kripke, but he has spoken to his co-star, saying they've been "keeping in touch." When asked about when Jensen Ackles will resume filming, Padalecki said "I think his plan is to be in Vancouver when I'm in Vancouver."

Relax, Supernatural fans. Eric Kripke has already told us that Dean is coming back, although as usual for Supernatural, it won't be easy. Kripke told tvguide.com last month "you need huge moves to happen that can cause radical shifts in the characters, that set them off in a new direction. So what happens to Dean in hell and how Dean gets out become primary concerns of Season 4," and that Dean "will emerge to a different landscape."

We hope to see the brothers Winchester reunited as soon as possible, saving people, hunting things, and dealing with massive amounts of emotional baggage.

Sources:
IESB.net
Scifiwire