On the heels of strong ratings and excitement from fans during 50, longtime Survivor host and showrunner Jeff Probst announced we would get another returning season sooner rather than later. Without any subsequent update, however, some fans were starting to get a little worried. Let the record show that returnee season is still coming. Probst reiterated that it’s going to happen in an interview, and he did it in a way that’s great news for one New Era favorite.The conversation in question happened during a chat with TV Line. Probst was asked when we’re going to get that returning player season, since we know it’s not happening on 51 or 52., which have already been shot He wouldn't commit to a specific season, but he said the conversation is being actively talked about. Here’s a portion of his quote…We’re definitely open to returning players. We weren’t gonna have them for awhile in the New Era, and we knew that. But part of that was because we had to birth new players to have a returning player season. You have to find your Rizo before he can be a returning player. But we’re totally open to returning player seasons. For us, it’s really a matter of when is the right time and is there a theme?Before I get into what this might mean for timelines, I need to single out my man Rizo. This obviously is not a promise to cast him in the next returnee season, but it’s clearly an indication that the show sees him as the face or at least one of the faces of the New Era. That’s a fantastic sign for his chances to be on a third season at some point, as we know the franchise is actively looking for its next Boston Rob or Sandra or Parvati or Cirie or Coach since we may never see that first crop of legends again.The other thing fans should take away from Probst’s comments is the reference to themes. The New Era entirely got away from themes, but the show is clearly ready to start bringing them back, whether it’s for returnee seasons or ones with entirely new players. In fact, in the same conversation, the host went on to say that he’s instructed the casting team to take notes around themes and types of people they are seeing over and over again. That way, they can work backwards to see if the talent they like matches a theme, rather than try to mold the talent into fitting a specific theme.We’d rather find great people. Like with David vs Goliath, that’s what happened. We started realizing, man, we have some really tough origin stories, and we have some gifted out of the womb advantage stories and we realized we’ve got David vs Goliath. We can do it. So we’re open literally to anything.I really felt like after Survivor 50 that we were going to get another returnee season on 54. I’m starting to lose my confidence a little bit that it’ll be that exact season, but I am heartened that the show is clearly still invested in giving us that season sooner rather than later. Most fans want to see a balance. We want three or four seasons with new players and then we want a season with returning players (hopefully from all eras). That keeps it special when it does happen, while also allowing us to see our favorite players again. Fingers crossed we see some familiar faces and some fantastic themes over the next few seasons.