After it was reported that Olivia Wilde has returned to work on House, rumors began to circulate that because of Wilde’s theatrical commitments, her character, Thirteen, will succumb to Huntington’s disease in this season’s final episodes.

Considering Wilde’s growing popularity in the world of film, a storyline that would result in Thirteen being written off the series is not much of a stretch. Despite Wilde’s character being a fan favorite, her potential scheduling conflicts and future availability could put House producers in a position where continuing Thirteen’s storyline would hurt the overall series.

Fortunately, the speculative future of Thirteen can now stop, as House creator David Shore revealed that his plans for both Olivia Wilde and her character extend well beyond season 7.

While nothing has been set in stone, Shore firmly believes that Wilde will be returning to House for its eighth season:

“We’ll have to continue to work around her schedule a little bit. But it would be a crying shame for us to let her get away at this point. We’ve been very good to her and we’d like a little bit of it back.”

Continuing, Shore laughs that Wilde’s popularity was planned all along – to better help the series:

“That was kind of [our] plan: let her go away, become a giant movie star, and then she would come back and bring [all her new fans] with her.”

As for what fans can expect to see when Thirteen finally returns from her trip (not to) Rome? Shore isn’t talk about that just yet. Although, he did confirm that nothing has been ruled out:

“We have something very cool in mind. We’re writing an episode built largely around her return. I know [fans] are speculating about what happened to her during her absence, and I don’t want to rule anything out.”

While no official date as been revealed for Thirteen’s triumphant return, we do know that Olivia Wilde is currently back to work on the series and that Amber Tamblyn’s roll as the loveable Martha Masters will be ending in the coming months.

Olivia Wilde - House

After figuring in production schedules, post-production schedules and Fox hoping to make her return a must-see event, it’s safe to say that we’ll be seeing Olivia Wilde return to House just in time for May sweeps.

-

House airs Monday @8pm, on Fox

Follow me on Twitter @anthonyocasio

Follow Screen Rant on Twitter @screenrant

Source: TV Line