Fans of the Gilmore Girls have been patiently waiting for closure for nearly a decade. Last year, the revival was announced and fans began to speculate about who might return.

Would Alexis Bledel’s “Rory” character return to Stars Hollow, or go back to Matt Czuchry’s “Logan” character? Would she instead seek out the much better-rounded version of her angsty ex, Jess (played by Milo Ventimiglia), or would she maybe find herself back in the arms of her first real boyfriend, Dean (played by Jared Padalecki)?

Fan theories, and hopes for the Gilmore Girls revival, ran amok on the internet. In the end, however, people acknowledged that it would all be based on which actors decided to return to the show. As people learned of news of one actor’s return at a time, theories began to reflect their involvement.

Little did fans know that almost everyone would be returning for the revival, even the ever-busy Supernatural star, Jared Padalecki.

Although the fact that almost all of Rory’s exes will be back in Stars Hollow for the revival puts a kink in the plans of any fan looking to use actor returns to figure out the coming story line, it does mean that the plot is likely to remain true to the original. Besides, just because everyone is returning doesn’t mean they’ll all have the same amount of screen time.

The big debate usually stems around whether Rory will end up with Dean or Jess, but it’s Matt Czuchry’s character that seems to have the most on-screen time in the revival, according to IMDb. He’ll be in all four of the 90-minute Gilmore Girls episodes. Following him in amount of screen time is Milo Ventimiglia, who is credited as being in three of the episodes.

What about Jared Padalecki? Surely, the fan-favorite character of Dean has at least as much on-air time as his rival, Jess?

Alas, Jared Padalecki isn’t even on the first page of credits on IMDb. If you want to find where Padalecki is mentioned in the credits for the revival, you’ll have to click the “see full cast” link.

That’s right, Jared Padalecki seems to be in only one single episode.

Jared Padalecki spoke about Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life during a JibCon panel on Saturday.

Padalecki explained that it was difficult for him to find time for the Gilmore Girls while Supernatural was starting to head into its twelfth season.

Jared Padalecki went on to describe how the Gilmore Girls series creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, had let him know that he was welcome back into revival by simply writing a scene for him and hoping he’d be able to show up for it, as EnStars reported.

“She basically said, ‘Listen, we’re going to write you a really cool scene and if you get a day off let us know. We will just put your scene on the schedule for that day. It’s a set that we already run and own [and] it’s an actress that already is working every day, so let us know.”

Jared Padalecki managed to find time to head from the Supernatural shoots in Vancouver to the new Gilmore Girls set in Los Angeles in time to shoot his scene, but that’s it.

The adorable Dean, played by Padalecki, will have little more than a walk-on role in the new revival series.

It might be safe for fans to remove the idea that Dean and Rory will be rekindling their romance from the theories circulating. Jared Padalecki will still be connected to a Dean character after the show airs, but that Dean will be played by Jensen Ackles.

[ Photo By Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images ]