It’s the rumor that won’t die. Could that be because it’s true?

E! Online was tipped off on Tuesday by “a reliable spy” that actor Dominic Monaghan and Lost mastermind Damon Lindelof “had breakfast together this morning at a Fairfax district eatery in Los Angeles.” Suspicions running on overdrive, E! speculates that either the two of them were just having a friendly get-together, or maybe… they were discussing plans to return Charlie Pace to Lost in its upcoming final season.

What do you think? A load of wishful thinking? Or a genuine possibility?

There are some crazy rumors flying around the Net this week that several (or possibly all!) of the deceased former passengers of Oceanic 815 could be returning to the show for its sixth and final season. Amid swirling bits about Charlie (aka actor Dominic Monaghan) and Shannon (Maggie Grace) possibly making respective comebacks, TV Guide throws fuel on the fire with word straight from actor Ian Somerhalder, who played Boone in the show’s first season, that his return is a very strong possibility.

Is this just actors’ wishful thinking? Or is there a time-has-been-rewritten-so-they’re-not-dead-anymore reunion in the works for all of the show’s stars of yesteryear? Hmm.

According to IGN, the mystery of Dominic Monaghan’s new casting on ABC has been solved, and it’s not a long-running show that the former Charlie Pace will be joining at all. It’s a new one.

IGN reports that, in a super-secret bit of casting, Monaghan is joining Flash Forward, the new scifi-tinged show based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer. If true, Monaghan will find at least one familiar face there: another member of the stellar-looking cast is Sonya Walger, aka Lost’s Penelope Widmore.

It seems Dominic Monaghan has been appearing in a new ABC commercial promoting upcoming shows on the network, and according to EW’s Michael Ausiello, ABC wants you to think it’s because the actor’s returning to Lost.

But he’s not.

Ausiello claims that Monaghan is instead joining the cast of a different hour-long drama on ABC as a full-time regular, and his appointment to the show is meant to be a major surprise. Okay, so… hour long drama, existing show… that narrows it down to Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, and Private Practice. (There’s also Castle and Cupid, but I doubt either of those would elicit such secret-keeping about upcoming plots.) Which show do you think it will be?

Do you Tweet? Twitter (as if you’ve never heard of it) is one of the hottest social networks on the Net, where anyone can sign up to post frequent updates on what they’re currently up to. You can even get updates on your mobile phone, if you like. (Find me under @robinparrish.)

Twitter has a lot to offer fans of Lost. Several actors and people involved with the show are Twitter users, and you can sign up to follow their updates. In addition, there’s a huge fan community of Lost fans on Twitter who post news, information, opinions, and much more. Here’s a handy dandy guide to some of the best and most useful Lost Tweeters out there.

Cast
Unfortunately, none of the current stars are Twitter users, but there are several former cast members and guest stars you can follow:

• @dominicmonaghan - starred as Charlie Pace in Seasons 1-3
• @nathanfillion - guest starred as Kate’s short-lived husband, Kevin Callis; now stars on Castle
• @greggrunberg - appeared as Captain Seth Norris in the pilot; currently stars on Heroes
• @cheechmarin - unconfirmed; plays Hurley’s father, David Reyes

Crew

• @jj_abrams - it’s really him, but he rarely Tweets at all
• @therealdamon (Damon Lindelof) - unconfirmed, but appears legit; rarely Tweets

Fans

• @the_island - home base to a very clever circle of Tweeters that post fictional thoughts as if they were all of the characters we know and love on Lost; from there, you’ll find @jack_shephard_, @benlinus, @smokemonster, and many more
• @lostpedia - essential Tweeting for all Lost fans; often posts news and info before anyone else
• @lost_on_abc - another good one for unique news; could be an ABC official account, but unconfirmed
• @darkufo - updates from the most popular Lost fansite on the Net
• @theodi - one of the most comprehensive Lost news sites on the Net
• & more… find dozens of others here and here

If you know of any other good Twitter accounts for Lost fans, be sure and post them in the Comments!

The break in between episodes this week got me to thinking about how there are only 3 more Wednesday nights remaining with new Lost episodes in all of 2009. We won’t see the 6th and final season until January 2010, and it will be much later this year before filming begins. So just what have Lost’s main cast members — past and present — been doing and what will they do with all that downtime?

Let’s have a look at what they’re up to, and where else they can be seen in the near future. (Note that Evangeline Lilly, Daniel Dae Kim, Terry O’Quinn, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies, Ken Leung, and Michael Emerson are not currently listed as being involved in any other projects.)

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20th Century Fox has released a full presskit today for its upcoming film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and enclosed within are some new details about the role being played by Lost’s Dominic Monaghan.

In the movie, Wolverine and several other mutants of tremendous power are recruited by Colonel William Stryker to join a covert black ops unit called Team X. From the production notes:

Another Team X member is Bradley, portrayed by Dominic Monaghan. Bradley, who can control and manipulate electricity, is a haunting figure, having gone into hiding from Stryker and Sabretooth, as a circus sideshow attraction. “When we meet Bradley in the film, he’s kind of fallen off the grid,” says Monaghan. “With Team X, he was a guerrilla soldier, but when things got out of hand, and he saw things he didn’t want to see, he left the unit.”

This is not the role past news reports led us to believe Monaghan would be playing. In those early reports, Monaghan was described as playing Barnell Bohusk, aka “Beak,” a deformed man mutated into a kind of part-human/part-bird hybrid. So who is this Bradley character? A little digging turned up a Marvel mutant named Chris Bradley, aka Maverick, a comic book mutant with the same ability to manipulate electricity as the one in the film. Looks like Monaghan’s character was loosely based on this.

Curiously, though Monaghan (who’s pictured above at the 6th Annual Global Green USA Pre-Oscar Party in February) is listed in the credits as one of the top-billed stars of the film, Fox has not released any images of his character. Every other major character has multiple photos made available to press, but there are no images whatsoever of this character “Bradley.” I wonder if this is intentional secrecy for some reason, or just an oversight on Fox’s part.

What do you think of Monaghan as “Bradley”? Will you be going to see Wolverine?

Image: Newscom.

Dominic Monaghan (Lost’s Charlie Pace) is guest starring on the TV show Chuck, next Monday, February 2nd. Monaghan played a wannabe rock star on Lost; on Chuck, he’ll be a legitimate one. Here’s NBC’s logline for the episode:

Chuck foils a plan to kill international rock star Tyler Martin (guest star Dominic Monaghan) leading Sarah and Casey to kidnap the musician to find out who wants him dead. When Chuck is left unattended with Tyler, the party animal rocker convinces Chuck to go out on the town, which only ends in a night of trouble.

The episode in question, “Chuck vs. the Third Dimension,” has the distinction of being the first full episode of any television show to be aired in 3D. Here’s a brief video featuring Monaghan and the cast of Chuck, talking about making the historic episode.

Image: Copyright 2009 ©NBC Universal.

The New York Post has a new interview with Dominic Monaghan (Lost’s Charlie Pace), where he talks mostly about his new movie, the quirky horror/comedy I Sell the Dead, which premiers today at Slamdance. More on that in a sec.

Since no interview is complete without a reference to Lost, NYP asked Monaghan if he thought Charlie might pop up again in the final two seasons of the show. He replies that it’s up to the show’s writers, but he still loves the show and “I would go back in a heartbeat.” He also reiterates his faith that showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse know exactly what they’re doing, and that they’ll send the show off “with a huge shebang.”

For details on Monaghan’s new film, click through!

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E! Online’s Kristin dos Santos reports that Jack’s late father, Christian Shephard (portrayed by John Terry), who popped up all over the place in Season 4, will be back for more Lost in Season 5. Kristin also passes along word that Claire (Emilie de Ravin) will return though she won’t be a regular in Season 5, along with some interesting quotes from Dominic Monaghan, aka Charlie, about what it would take to get him back.

Monaghan tells Kristin that he would return to the show — but only if the story was at least as good as the story arc that led to his death. “I wouldn’t come back for just a little hello in the background,” he says.

What do you think? Ready for more Ghost Charlie? And what other dead characters would you like to see return? Take the poll, or fill in an answer not listed there using the Comments below.

Image: Newscom.