Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s comic universe is sprawling and complex, with his Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense having many agents and iterations. However, with this week’s issue of B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know, it gets perhaps his universe’s biggest surprise.

[Spoilers: unless you’ve read B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know No. 5, which came out Wednesday, be warned that the ending is revealed below.]

In conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Mignola (who co-writes the comic with Scott Allie) commented upon the issue’s ending, which detailed the discovery of a coffin in which Hellboy was interred. And his eyes appeared to be opening, which corpses rarely do. Hellboy is alive.

“For a very long time we've known where this series was going,” Mignola said, referencing Hellboy’s death and journey through Hell in the two series Hellboy: The Fury and the aptly-named Hellboy in Hell. The latter ended with Hellboy’s acceptance of death and his abandonment of his self-appointed post guarding Earth from supernatural evil.

Now, with his body found at the former B.P.R.D. HQ ruins, Hellboy seems to be back. “The reveal at the end of issue 5 was planned years ago and I sincerely hope it catches readers by surprise,” Mignola told THR.

With a new movie coming down the pike, the timing seems right for Hellboy’s return to the realm of the living. Rejoining the B.P.R.D. would be a big move for Red, but his future remains a mystery because, as THR notes, details surrounding his “potential return will be revealed in upcoming months.”