'Bones' season 11 finale news: Executive producer weighs in on shocking twist; Cast members dish on twelfth season

"Bones" season 11 ended with a shocking twist, one that could carry on through to the twelfth and final season of the series.

Prior to the season 11 finale, spoilers pointed to a cliffhanger ending and a possible death of a main character. Well, the character, which was actually Brennan (Emily Deschanel), didn't die. However, she was kidnapped by no less than her former assistant, Zack Addy (Eric Millegan). That, apparently, was the big twist being alluded to in the spoilers.

Zack's re-appearance raised questions as to the true identity of The Puppeteer serial killer, a character introduced in the 13th episode of season 11. Even TV Fanatic's roundtable session had the panelists believing that Zack is the killer Booth (David Boreanaz) was after.

This assumption came to light after Brennan went missing from the Jeffersonian lab while the psychologist (Tim Guinee) she was consulting in was picked up by the FBI on the presumption that he was the murderer. With Brennan disappearing while the psychologist was in custody, the crime had to be tagged on someone else – Zack.

Asked to shed light on Zack's purported ties with The Puppeteer, the show's co-executive producer, Jonathan Collier, said, "I can't confirm anything." He did admit that bringing Zack back has always been on the drawing board.

"Once we knew season 12 would be the last season, that's when we really started to figure out how to do it," Collier told TV Line.

He went on to say that the decision was made [to bring Zack back] so as not to leave any "stones unturned, no unfinished business" once the series goes into its final season.

Meanwhile, Paste spoke with the cast and producers of "Bones" about the upcoming final season. There, they learned that aside from Zack being back in the story, season 12 would also see lots of returning guest stars. Deschanel, for one, said she would "like to see Stephen Fry back."

Boreanaz interjected that he would want to see Katheryn Winnick, who played his ex-girlfriend Hannah Burley, prompting Deschanel to wish for her character's former love interest Tim Sullivan (played by Eddie McClintock).

Apparently, there would also be a wedding between Dr. Cam Saroyan (Tamara Taylor) and Dr. Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Vahdat), as well as more death. However, the unfortunate ones would probably be from one of the recurring characters and not current series regulars.

"Bones" season 12 will air in early 2017, but in the meantime, check out the interview with the cast by TV Line's Michael Ausiello during the San Diego Comic-Con.