A this week's  Paley Center for Media fan event, True Blood creator Alan Ball said:

"I believe [Eric] appears without most of his clothes in the very first episode [of season three]."

So, there you have it. There might be a naked scene involving Alexander Skårsgard when this HBO hit returns. Do you even care about other spoilers? Yes, you do? Well, okay then...

Ball also opened up about other characters and storylines. To wit:

Sookie's double-edged mission: "Sookie [Anna Paquin] is going to go off in search of Bill [Stephen Moyer], and she will find him. There will be more conjecture about what she is and she will be more driven to discover what she is. She will get closer to the answer."

Jason's DNA: "It's a genetic thing and skips some people and gets in some others. Jason has vestiges of it, in that he's such a fantastic athlete and he's a perfect shot, but he's still human, whereas Sookie is definitely a half-human, half-something else that we're waiting to reveal."

The future of Bill and Sookie: "Bill and Sookie may go through some rough patches that last maybe a little longer than Team Bill fans might like, but Bill and Sookie have a connection that will never die."

Tara's romance with a new vampire, Franklin Mott: "He's more dangerous than any of those other [vampires]. She's definitely playing with something that's a lot more deadly."

True Blood won't return until the summer of 2010, but this speaks to the popularity of the HBO drama. Fans simply get enough enough scoops or spoilers for it. And we can't blame them!

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.