Supernatural's Jim Beaver Explains How He Fooled The Show's Fans Into Thinking He Was Gone

Many Supernatural fans were quite taken aback when they witnessed the sudden reappearance of Bobby Singer at the end of the episode "Party On, Garth" a few weeks back. This was understandable. The character of Bobby had died early this season, and while deaths are seldom permanent on this show, all indications from producers and actor Jim Beaver himself led most to believe that he wouldn't be returning any time soon. While the fact that Bobby might be following the Winchesters around as a ghost has been hinted at in recent episodes, nobody had the slightest clue that we'd be seeing him in the flesh (so to speak) again any time soon.

In a recent chat with EW.com, Beaver revealed the lengths he went to in order to keep fans in the dark leading up to March 30th - "They didn’t really say anything to me other than ‘Keep it quiet, but I knew I was going to get spotted. I was going to go to the grocery store and someone was going to say that I was here and [assume] I’m coming back to life. So I needed a cover story and made up this story about an abominable snowman movie that I was shooting an hour out of Vancouver. And it turned into something really fun. If you go back and look at some of those things in retrospect, you’ll get an idea of just how much fun I was having.”

The actor even went so far as to tweet fake photos and post phony facebook updates in order to maintain the illusion. The newest episode (just aired last night) will address Bobby's feelings about his current ethereal predicament - "“He’s always been a capable hunter and a capable man who does most of what he sets out to do and does it all pretty easily and with a certain amount of flair. All of a sudden, he’s the new kid in school who doesn’t know the rules and keeps making mistakes and isn’t strong enough to do some of the things he needs to do. There’s a lot of frustration with him getting his sea legs as a ghost."

As far as how Sam & Dean will react to the news - "He has to deal with the boys’ concern of what he may or may not become. I think once they realize that he’s back in this new form, they’re going to be very, very worried for him. He’s convinced he can handle it, though. We’ll have to wait and see."

Are you excited to have Bobby back? Or should he have stayed buried?