Giancarlo Esposito will return to his role in Once Upon A Time after being mysteriously absent for season 2.

Esposito will guest star in season 3, returning to his role as Sidney Glass, or (in the Enchanted Forest) the Magic Mirror/Genie.  Esposito’s character was originally a genie who was manipulated by Queen Regina (Lana Parrilla).  She used his love for her against him and then trapped him in a mirror.  In Storybrooke, he is Sidney Glass, a reporter for the local newspaper (Storybrooke Daily Mirror) who is also a close ally to Mayor Regina.

Glass has not been seen since season 1 in which he was imprisoned in the basement of the hospital by Regina after Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and the rest of the town figured out that he had assisted Regina in faking the death of David Nolan’s (Josh Dallas) wife, Kathryn (Anastasia Griffith), and framed Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin) for the “murder”.

Creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis discussed a few things about the season 3 premiere with fans. “What you saw at the end of the finale is a jumping off point: Some characters are on the boat, some characters are in Storybrooke. [The beginning of Season 3 focuses on] what they’re facing and how they’re going to deal with new challenges, particularly having a lot of our hero characters and our villain characters forced to work together,” Horowitz shared at the ATX Television Festival in Austin.

Once Upon a Time returns to ABC on Sundays this fall, along with spinoff Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.