Nikita stars Maggie Q, Shane West, Lyndsy Fonseca, Aaron Stanford and Melinda Clarke were joined by executive producer Craig Silverstein at Comic-Con International to share intel about the third season of The CW action-drama.

Moderated by The Huffington Post’s Laura Prudom, the panel kicked off the official announcement that Devon Sawa (Final Destination) had been promoted to series regular. Silverstein promised that Sawa, who plays rogue Division cleaner Owen Elliot, will return in the fourth episode.

"He comes back with a mystery, he comes back with an agenda,” he teased. “All the good Owen stuff.”

Noah Bean (Damages), who plays straight-laced former CIA agent Ryan Fletcher, has also been promoted to a series regular and will have the unenviable task of not only running the newly reclaimed Division but also trying to rein in the staunchly anti-authority Nikita -- a dynamic that wasn’t lost on Q.

"They're friends, which is nice, but at the same time he's got a job to do and so does she,” the actress said. “They're two characters with strong convictions so we'll see what happens there.”

Silverstein said there will only be a time-jump of a month between the second and third seasons. "It will be their first mission back when you see them," he said. "They get a month off. Like us! We had less!"

Fonseca, who plays rogue agent Alexandra Udinov, was asked whether her character's love interest Sean Pierce (Dillon Casey), will finally go on their long-awaited first date. "I hope so," Q interjected. "I hope so, too," Fonseca sighed.

Stanford, who plays ace computer hacker Seymour Birkhoff, was asked how his relationship with fellow computer whiz Sonya (Lyndie Greenwood) will progress. "There might be a new tension between Sonya and Birkhoff that wasn't there before,” he said. “Maybe not in a good way.”

Clarke, who portrays former Division psychologist and current Nikita antagonist Amanda, addressed where her character will be at the beginning of the season: "I'm assuming she's in exile and in hiding, and ultimately I think she's in the same position that Nikita was in the first season, where she was all alone and she may have one singular obsession right now, which is going after Nikita.”

West spoke about where his character, rogue Division agent Michael, stands, saying, "In Season 1, he was a lot darker -- and he had a lot reasons to be happy in Season 2. With this one, we're going to see a bit of both. You're going to have the light Michael and dark Michael, and I really can’t hint at it anymore than that, but I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised, they may be shocked at what might happen to Michael this year."

He also expressed a desire to work with Roy Dupuis, who played Michael in the original La Femme Nikita series. "If they ever decided to do a ‘someone who possibly trained Michael when he joined Division,’ I thought it would kind of be a cool concept to have Michael training Michael," West said.

With Alberta Watson playing antagonist Madeline Pierce in both incarnations of the series, Silverstein was asked whether he’s actively trying to maintain a link between Nikita and the old series and films. "It's something that we don't look to push for, but if the opportunity comes up we go after it," he said. "But it's nothing that we search for."

While overarching theme of Season 2 was "home," the theme for this season will be "family." "Nikita is a lone wolf, and she's built this family up around her that she didn’t really intend to," Silverstein said. "But now here they are, and they're all in this place and it's sort of watching them come together and then sort of get fractured."

When asked if there would be any obstacles between Nikita and Michael's happiness, Silverstein replied, "Obviously something's going to happen, but there will be happiness for a little while."

Q was asked her thoughts on being the first-ever Asian-American lead actor on an American television drama. "The best thing about this opportunity is that it opens doors for people after me and that's the biggest compliment,” she said.

Nikita returns Oct. 19 on The CW.