Actor returning after season-long absence

Michael Dawson's boat may not have gotten too far away from the "Lost" island after all.

After some prodding by TV critics and an off-stage go-ahead from executive producer Damon Lindelof, ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson announced Wednesday at the TCA press tour that Harold Perrineau will be returning to "Lost." The producers plan to make a splashier announcement Thursday at Comic-Con in San Diego.

Perrineau's character, single father Michael, and son Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) were absent on "Lost" last season (though Walt did appear briefly in a vision to Terry O'Quinn's John Locke). At the end of season two, Michael made a deal with the Others to take Walt off the island in exchange for delivering Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) to them.

He also shot and killed two other survivors, Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) and Libby (Cynthia Watros), in the course of fulfilling the plan.

McPherson wouldn't say when or how Perrineau would return to the show, nor did he talk much about how the flash-forward device seen in last season's finale would play out in the coming season, which is scheduled to start in early 2008. There's also no word on whether Walt will be with Michael upon his return.

Perrineau starred in a CBS pilot called "Demons" earlier this year that wasn't picked up. He also appeared in "28 Weeks Later" and has several other film projects in various stages of completion.