Count Jeffrey Dean Morgan among those Supernatural fans anxious for a John Winchester resurrection.

The actor — who last appeared as Sam and Dean’s late pa nearly a decade ago — tells TVLine that he wants back in bad. “I would absolutely love to come back,” he says. “There’s no official talk that I know of, but I’m always in contact with Jared [Padalecki] and Jensen [Ackles] — they’re very good friends of mine.

“With me it’s always been about scheduling,” adds Morgan, who just booked a season-long stint on The Good Wife. “But hopefully we can find a little time and they’ll write something that I can do. It would be a great joy to go back and play with those guys.”

And Morgan only has one small request of The CW: he wants Ackles to helm his comeback episode. “I would love to have Jensen direct me, honestly.” he says. “I think that would be a very cool deal. That’s always what I’ve been pushing for.”

Creatively, there has never been a better time for Papa Winchester to resurface. At Comic-Con last weekend, executive producer Andrew Dabb hinted that Season 11 (bowing Oct. 7) will dredge up “some things” from Sam and Dean’s past that “we haven’t dealt with in a long time but will have some really interesting repercussions for both guys.”

Dabb later added that Morgan’s return was inevitable. “To me, it’s not if he comes back, it’s when. When’s the right time? When it’s going to be for maximum impact? What you don’t want to do is bring a character like that back and waste the opportunity.”