The Following Season 3 Spoilers: Alternate Season 2 Ending Unveiled At Comic Con 2014; Season 3 Story Will Welcome A 'Bigger, Badder' Villain

Attendees at the Hall H in the San Diego Comic-con were treated to The Following season 3 spoilers. But first, a surprising, alternate fate for Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) was unveiled at the panel.

It will be recalled that in the two-part season 2 finale for The Following, the character of Joe Carroll was arrested and sent to prison. In the alternate ending he is killed by Mark Gray (played by Sam Underwood).

Executive producer Marcos Siega had said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that they didn't want a big splashy ending like they did in season 1. "We didn't want to repeat. We had versions where we could have easily gone the big cliffhanger route, and we thought it was more interesting to set up a series of questions and make it more provoking, and people wanting to know answers that aren't necessarily the big cut-to-black, "Did somebody die or no?"

In any case, Kevin Williamson, the show's creator said that things would not be too different whether Joe died or not, and the Joe Carroll storyline was too interesting to just cut off abruptly.

"Losing James Purefoy and Joe Carroll would've been tough... The door is open now," says Shawn Ashmore (Agent Mike Weston). Ashmore further insists that even if the show's creators decided to kill off Joe, his presence would still loom large over the course of the following seasons.

Another The Following season 3 spoiler that fans of the show can chew on is the fact that Sam Underwood (Luke/Mark) would be coming back in an "unexpected" way.

Meanwhile, season 3 will pick up with Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) after a year, where he is found to be in a good relationship and enjoying a much more peaceful life. He is with a doctor named Gwen, and they are starting to settle down. "We're living together and she has a daughter," Bacon shared. "I'm actually trying to experience some domesticity. Along with the inner struggle to pull [Ryan] together, he's also taking on a giant adjustment being a dad."

But The Following season 3 will have some things in store that would surely shake things up in Ryan's newly domesticated life. Showrunner Jennifer Johnson shared that a "brand new threat for New York" will be coming, throwing the city into "urban paranoia" and "disintegration."

She adds that "we will challenge that [happiness] episode after episode. Can he hold on to the happiness that he has found?" And could this be in the form of a "bigger, badder villain" to clash against Ryan Hardy?

The Following season 3 panel just stopped short of a spoiler about who this could be. Viewers will just have to tune it to find out.