Director David Lynch plays it cool on Twin Peaks revival

Your long, Twin Peaks-less nightmare is almost over.

Created by Mark Frost and David Lynch, this legendary (and legendarily odd) ABC series and its “Who Killed Laura Palmer” mystery took America by storm when it debuted in 1990. It was unlike any show anyone had ever seen, which may be why it quickly exploded into a hit and just as quickly collapsed, ending after just two seasons but leaving behind one of TV’s most devoted cult followings.

Fans celebrated in 2014 when Showtime announced it would bring the show back with Lynch and Frost in charge – and then began to panic as time passed and Peaks did not appear. Well, panic no more: the new Twin Peaks arrives on Showtime May 21 with a two-hour movie that launches an 18-episode run, all directed by Lynch.

“David Lynch is one of the great film masters of my lifetime,” Showtime CEO David Nevins told television critics, “and I think that the version of Twin Peaks you’re going to see is the pure heroin version of David Lynch, and I’m very excited to be putting that out.”

But brought us all back to what? What should we expect from the new version? “This word ‘expect’ is a magical word,” Lynch says. “People expect things, and their expectations are met hopefully when they see the thing.”

Does he think those expectations will be met? “Always, we’re filled with doubt.”

As you can perhaps tell, details about that new show are a well-kept secret, so secret that even Lynch says he’s not allowed to divulge them. But we do know that some of the original cast will return, including Mädchen Amick and Kyle MacLachlan, who became a star playing the coffee-drinking, pie-eating Special Agent Dale Cooper.

“I didn’t think it was ever coming back,” says Amick. “People would ask, and I always said ‘No, absolutely not. There’s no way they could do that again.’”

Being able to return, says MacLachlan, was a gift. “There were some long days, but they were joyful days... It was just a huge sense of gratitude to be there, to be creating something we all love, to be working with a master like David Lynch.”

Working with Lynch, says frequent Lynch star Laura Dern (Wild at Heart), “is just the most freeing, wild, family ride you could ever ask for in your life.” She’s new to the Peaks family, she says, but “what we all share is the beauty of returning.”

Peaks is being billed as a one-time, special event, but Lynch says he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of another trip back. After all, he says, he once said he’d never return to Twin Peaks again – and yet here he is.

“Never say never.”