As with any Chuck article these days, allow us to preface the following with the unfortunate news that the NBC show won’t return until March. When it does, however, an Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner will guest star for at least one episode.

Armand Assante will portray a foreign dictator that Casey has unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate multiple times. On the small screen, Assante was most recently seen in October Road and NCIS.

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Vinnie Jones is making a foray into series television with two projects.

The British actor is attached to star in a hourlong series for Alex Cole’s Elevate Entertainment and Jay Firestone’s Canadian production company Prodigy Pictures.

Additionally, Jones has been tapped to guest star on NBC’s dramedy “Chuck,” where he will play Karl Stromberg, an expert hit man with a soft side.

The untitled new series, based on an upcoming comic book series by Howard Chaykin, centers on Jake Noble, an international spy who teams with his long-lost daughters he never knew existed.

“I never really thought of TV before as a medium for me,” Jones said. “However, with it becoming such a source of creativity these days, and this project with its modern James Bond style and feeling to it, I couldn’t resist.”

Elevate and Prodigy plan to produce 22 episodes independently at a budget of about $2 million an episode. The project, executive produced by Cole, Firestone, Jenny Wood and Seth Howard, will be presented next month in Cannes at the MIP confab.

The series is one of eight projects in the works at recently launched management/production company Elevate. Prodigy recently produced the miniseries “XIII” for NBC.

Captain Awesome is in danger of becoming Captain Deadasadoornail if this latest Chuck casting scoop is any indication: Ex-Law & Order ADA Angie Harmon has signed on to guest star in this season’s fourth episode as Sydney, a spy for the Ring who wants to whack Ryan McPartlin’s awe-obsessed alter ego.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it three times in the past week: NBC, please don’t make us wait until March for new Chuck episodes. I’ll do anything you want. I’ll even forgive you for Knight Rider. And Coupling. Just name your price.

Old Thai Woman - 55 to 70, must be able to speak Thai and English…Fun CO-STAR

OK, here are some facts about the season premiere of “Chuck” and some overall themes for the new season. Check out now if you don’t want to know:

*The title of the season premiere is “Chuck vs. the Pink Slip” and it was written by Fedak and Matt Miller.

*On Wednesday, the day before shooting began on Season 3, Zachary Levi showed up at the NBC party at the TCA press tour with a full-on Old Testament beard. You may think he had to shave it Thursday morning before he began work on “Pink Slip.” No, he did not. The beard has been worked in to the season premiere; it’ll appear for at least part of the episode.

*Levi’s wardrobe for the episode included an old grey T-shirt, a bathrobe, a baseball cap and sunglasses. The phrase “vagrant Serpico” was used by one character to describe his look.

*The Buy More is still part of Season 3. But it was a very different place, much more locked down and tidied up, and on all the flat screens in the store, a very ominous film loop was playing: a black and white clip of Joseph Stalin reviewing troops in Red Square. Dun-dun-dun!

*The reason for the grim mood in the Buy More? The reign of terror implemented by Emmett Milbarge. Yes, Tony Hale, who plays Milbarge, will once again recur in Season 3. And as we know, he’s not the “see no evil” manager that Big Mike was. His office is now a much darker, more ominous place, dominated by a giant executive chair and a large “Buy-Moria” flag.

*Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence), the store’s former manager, is still in “purgatory/Hell” on the Buy More sales floor, according to Fedak.

*This is a factoid from the Comic-Con interview, but I thought it was worth mentioning again: Morgan and Chuck are roommates as Season 3 begins.

*I interviewed Adam Baldwin for a separate piece that will run in advance of the new season, and he said that though there’s nothing concrete worked out just yet, the idea of Casey getting a love interest at some point had been bandied about.

*The set of the Orange Orange was in use on Thursday.

*The set of the Castle, the spy headquarters, was in use on Thursday. And it is going to be expanded in Season 3. “You could call it a palace now,” Levi joked.

*Fedak said there are still plans to keep John Casey (Adam Baldwin) in the orbit of the Buy More crew, given that there is so much comedy to be mined from his irritation with the store’s staff. “It’s a lot of fun to have him in that world as the straight man, and it’s great to get his perspective on the Buy More madness,” Fedak said. “John Casey’s been out there for 20 years saving America, now he realizes just what he’s been saving. So it’s tough for him. But this year we’d like to get him in the Buy More even more.”

*How Subway, the “Chuck” advertiser whom fans patronized in an effort to get a new season for the show, will be worked into the new season has not quite been figured out.

*As mentioned in that Comic-Con piece, Chuck’s new abilities, which were glimpsed at the end of Season 2, will not work perfectly in Season 3. The idea in Season 3 is to have Casey and Sarah act not just as Chuck’s protectors but as his “senseis,” or teachers who will help him use his powers effectively. “They’re training him to be the master spy, and their relationships are maturing that way,” Fedak said.

*There are also plans to “deepen the spy characters” to find out, for example, how a soldier like Casey ended up becoming a spy. And we’d also find out more about what Sarah and Casey have done in their espionage careers. “Spies are people who go to other countries and commit criminal acts. So with Casey and Sarah, it’s always interesting to see what they’ve done in their past, and find out how grey or interesting or duplicitous they’ve been,” Fedak said.

*Fedak said specifically that I should say he refused to comment in any way on the Cheese Balls.

During last week’s Chuck panel at Comic-Con, fans had one question in mind:

Will Chuck and Sarah ever get together?!?

“You know what they say?” said cocreator and executive producer Josh Schwartz. “Two steps forward, three steps back. The dance shall continue.”

At least Schwartz shed some light on how that dance might be performed on season three. He told E! News: “We do have two major new arcs on the show. One is a potential love interest for Chuck, and the other is a potential love interest for Sarah.”

Sounds both intriguing and frustrating. Why can’t these two just hook up for good? Partly because Sarah isn’t happy about certain developments, star Yvonne Strahovski said.

“There are going to be a lot more complications between Chuck and Sarah, now that he’s downloaded his new intersect into his brain. I think that Sarah is going to be a little upset.”

During the annual festival in San Diego, Schwartz added that Chuck and Sarah will go through “something very emotional and traumatic,” but “it’s going to be very, very good.”

Cocreator Chris Pedak chimed in with: “It’ll be cool. It’ll be deep, and it’ll have a lasting affect on the show.”

Okay. Fine. Consider us in for season three.