The above photo was posted to Twitter this morning by the Luther Twitter account, with the accompanying words:

She's back! #luther #alice

A potentially interesting development. Why do I say that?

Well, as season 3 of Luther begun shooting last November, leading up to that, for much of last year, we'd been led to believe by show creator Neil Cross that we shouldn't expect the Alice Morgan storyline to return in any sort of way this season. Both he and star Idris Elba have emphasized that they're trying to set things up for the "bigger picture" and there's a possibility that Alice's storyline will come back when the Luther feature film is made. But don't expect to see much of her in season 3, if at all.

Instead of Alice (as some of you would've liked), Luther will instead match wits, as well as be romanced by a new character played by Sienna Guillory.

That little detail there was met with some sadness among fans of the series, who'd grown to love Alice and her deliciously maniacal ways, as well as her interactions with Luther.

And also Neil Cross later revealed that Alice may be getting her very own spin-off project, saying that he was in talks with the BBC to create a spin-off for the infamous character played wonderfully by actress Ruth Wilson.

And as for whether Luther might occassional find himself in Alice's spin-off series, Cross said, "I think the first one would probably be a Luther-free zone, because their stories have diverged to a large extent, but there would be nothing to suggest they couldn't come together again — either by this vehicle or a 'Luther' movie." 

So, all that to say that I wonder if the above photo and accompaying words now suggest that Alice actually may be featured in season 3, and may be more significantly involved in it than we've been led to believe.

Obviously, it's just a photo and a few words ("Shes back!"), and I'm inferring from those 2 *clues* that Alice really is indeed *back* for season 3, and prominently so. Why make a fuss about it this way, potentially raising fan expectations, if she wasn't?

We'll find out eventually. It may just be a quick cameo or brief appearance in one episode or something like that; maybe she appears in the final episode of the season, as the audience is left with some kind of cliffhanger, which will set things up for the movie.

Or it could also be that Cross got the greenlight from the BBC to move forward with the Zlic spin-off series.

We still don't have a date as to when season 3 of Luther will debut, but we'll assume later this year.

Warren Brown, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Dermot Crowley and Michael Smiley all return to assume the roles they each played last season.

Next season guest stars will include Orlessa Altass, Lucian Msamati (Game Of Thrones fans will remember him as the pirate Salladhor Saan; he and Nonso Anozie were the 2 black Brits who joined the series cast last season), and Ned Dennehy (Tyrannosaur).