Before the Twin Peaks panel at Showtime's TCA session, the network allowed creator David Lynch to come out for 15 minutes to field question from journalists. It was an impromptu delight and also a massive frustration. He did say that there will be 18 hourlong episodes, though he filmed it like one long movie. Critics attempted to ask a variety of questions about the filming process and what it was like to return to this world, and got all kinds of very Lynchian answers in reply. As an example, when asked how he and Mark Frost work together and write the show, he replied:

“In the beginning, many years ago, Mark and I - as if lost in the wilderness - as it always is in the beginning, we seemed to find some mountain and we began the climb. And when we rounded the mountain we entered a deep forest, and going through the forest for a time the trees began to thin, and when we came out of the woods we discovered this small town called Twin Peaks. And we got to know many of the people in Twin Peaks and the people who visited Twin Peaks, and we discovered a mystery. And within this mystery were many other mysteries, and we discovered a world, and within this world there were other worlds. That’s how it started, and that’s what brings us here today, and the story continues.”

The journalist repeated, "but how do you divide up the duties of the show?" Lynch replied, “We work together on Skype. Mark lives in Ojai and I live in the Hollywood, and we Skype and write together."

As far as if these stories are any that he wanted to continue originally in the ABC series, he said, "well in the beginning we … well I’m not really at liberty to talk about that.” He did say he's been very happy at Showtime, and hasn't been aware of the clamor for the show's return. “I’m too in the middle and I don’t go out much," but "I’m very happy in this world and how things are going.”

He also praised the cast and crew now and from 25 years ago, and talked about how great it's been to return to this world. And even though it feels like Showtime in 2017 is such a different TV world than ABC a quarter century ago, Lynch said that,

“We didn’t have any problems with standards and practices 25 years ago. In fact, I couldn’t believe the freedom and the things that we did. If you look at the show it’s kind of amazing. Sometimes dialogue had to be changed, but that always led to a better thing. We always had a lot of freedom.”

Regarding his favorite thing about the original series, he revealed,

“I’ll tell you what I loved, the pilot for Twin Peaks. That for me set the tone, and made the world and the characters for me. That’s started the thing and I felt really good bout that and that mood and those characters and fell in deep, deep love.”

As far as what happened to the show in Season 2,

What killed Twin Peaks originally was 'who killed Laura Palmer?' was a question we didn’t ever really want to answer. That Laura Palmer mystery was the goose that laid these little golden eggs. At a certain point we were told we needed to wrap that up, and it never really got going again after that.”

Though Lynch has said in the past that he did not want to return to the project, obviously that changed so he doesn't rule anything out for the future. But at this point, there aren't any plans to do more after this set of episodes. However, everything within the Twin Peaks canon (yes, I'm talking about Fire Walk with Me) will be a part of this new story. And while most of the cast is returning, some are not, and Lynch said he wrote this new story "hoping for the best” as far as who would be available. But as far as that massive cast list that was released awhile back,

“You try to get the right person for the part, that’s the rule. You meet people, you see pictures of people, you see videos of people, and you get a sense of looking and them and hearing them if they’re right or wrong for this particular part.”

Most of his replies were of this vein, almost hysterically vague and reflexive. Ultimately, when asked if he thought the ending of the original series would be the final conclusion with Cooper's doppleganger asking about Annie, he said “I always felt even if it only happened mentally and emotionally, the story goes on.”

And fittingly: “It was, as you said, a story.”

Twin Peaks premieres May 21st on Showtime.