Twin Peaks will air on May 21, with a two-hour episode premiere and 18-hour series that follows. Co-creator David Lynch and his cast offered slivers of detail about the highly-anticipated show during a panel at TCA.

The filmmaker unexpectedly appeared at the Television Critics Association press tour, with Madchen Amick, Laura Dern, Miguel Ferrer, Kyle McLachlan, Kimmy Robertson and Robert Forster from the cast joining.

Lynch said, according to Variety, that “the story of Laura Palmer’s last seven days is very, very important” to what we’ll see in the revival. However, when he was prodded as to whether there would be continuations of original plots or new storylines he said: “I’m really not a liberty to talk about that.”

At the same convention, Showtime president David Nevins called the reboot “pure heroin”, Lynch later mysteriously said: “I hear heroin is a very popular drug.”

He also recalled how the dark world of Twin Peaks and its residents played on his mind for years, and how they decided to return. “I often just remembered the beautiful world and the beautiful characters,” Lynch said. “It was Mark who contacted me, it was many years ago now, and asked if I wanted to go back into that world, and we met and talked, and that’s what got us going again for this one.”

The Blue Velvet director also described how he and Twin Peaks co-creator Frost originally approached the first season’s pilot. “I saw it as a film, and we shot it the same was (as a film) and lo and behold, it clicked,” he explained. Lynch also discussed the work they had to do to finish the original series.

 “What killed Twin Peaks originally – who killed Laura Palmer? – was a question that we did not ever really want to answer,” he said. “That Laura Palmer mystery was the goose that laid these little golden eggs. And then at a certain point, we were told we needed to wrap that up and after that, (the show) never really picked up.”

He also stated that the revival was written as one continuous story and not episodically. Without giving detail away about that creative process, he did say how he and Frost worked over Skype together.

Lynch also refused to discuss difficulties around the project, instead stating: “We’ve got a great working relationship. It’s been super working with (Showtime). I’m very, very happy being at Showtime.” When asked about the cast members from the original show and what kept some of them from returning, Lynch said it was because some didn’t want to come back, whereas the story didn’t continue for others.

Cast from the original roster returning include Kyle MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn and David Duchovny. A major omission was Lara Flynn Boyle’s Donna, who is said to have turned it down. New additions include Sky Ferreira, Trent Reznor, Eddie Vedder, Au Revoir Simone and Sharon Van Etten, as well as Michael Cera, Monica Bellucci, Tim Roth, Naomi Watts, Ashley Judd, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Laura Dern.

A teaser also revealed that Lynch will reprise his cameo role as doughnut-eating Detective Gordon Cole, the hard-of-hearing detective at the side of Dale Cooper.

Madchen Amick said she “cried the whole time”, and frequent Lynch collaborator Laura Dern described what working with the iconic filmmaker was like.

“The opportunity of working with David every day is magical and hilarious,” said Dern. “You’re seeing something you’ve never seen before.” 

Kyle McLachlan, who plays special agent Dale Cooper, described his working process with Lynch, and how they can work together successfully without even speaking.

He explained: “It’s a feeling more than anything else. I don’t really know why and I don’t have that with any other director I’ve worked with yet. I consider it to be special, and I’m so grateful to be able to have that actor-director relationship again.”

“A breath is a direction or a shrug,” Dern continued. “I didn’t know that language the first time” she said of working with Lynch, but building that relationship was “interesting”. She added that nothing had changed since the original show first began.

A recent featurette released by Showtime showed behind-the-scenes footage of filming, with some of the cast members discussing their time on the set.

When asked about how Twin Peaks has aesthetically influenced film, television and popular culture, Lynch said: “I’m very happy in this world and how it’s going.”

He said there were no immediate plans to continue on from the 18 episodes already created, but that “you never say no”.