Naveen Andrews joins 'Once Upon' spinoff in major role

He’s back: Naveen Andrews is returning to ABC primetime. The actor has booked a major role on upcoming fall series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.

Andrews will play Jafar — the main villain in Disney’s 1992 film Aladdin.

The role will mark Andrews’ U.S. TV return since playing Sayid on Lost, which concluded in 2010. He’s appeared in one other project, the UK series Sinbad, which was aired stateside on Syfy, and was cast in an ABC pilot earlier this year. The super-secret casting was just announced during the Wonderland panel, with Andrews surprising fans by taking the stage.

“I’m proud and thrilled to be back with ABC on an exciting and unique new show!” said Andrews in a statement to EW. “This role will be a real departure from any animated versions because of the layered emotions and complexities involved with making him a real three-dimensional character.”

Showrunner Edward Kitsis said on the panel that Jafar will part of the show starting with the season premiere. “We absolutely had this character in mind and we knew we wanted Naveen to play it. We asked him he said yes and we said lets save it for Comic-Con … it’s going to be very frightening.”

Wonderland premieres Thursday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m.

Jafar from Aladdin.