When Saw IV director Darren Lynn Bousman, star Tobin Bell, and producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg gathered recently at the Parc Restaurant in Hollywood to talk about the latest installment of the popular horror franchise, they knew exactly what was on everyone's minds.

"We killed Jigsaw at the end of Saw III. Everybody knows it," stated Burg, matter-of-factly. "So the challenge for us is, how do you continue the franchise with Jigsaw being dead?"

It's a fair question, especially considering that star Tobin Bell, who played the now-deceased villain in the first three Saw films, also happens to be starring in Saw IV. Theories on Jigsaw's return abound on message boards across the internet: Jigsaw has a twin, or he's a ghost, or he'll be appearing in flashbacks, or....well, you get the point.

So how exactly do they intend to bring Jigsaw back? "You'll find out in the very first scene of the film," Bell promised.

"Everyone's thinking, 'Oh, they're doing a prequel,' but we're not," said Bousman. "Is Tobin back in this? One hundred percent he is. Is he badass in this? One hundred percent he is. Is Tobin only in flashbacks? No, he's not. Is Tobin dead? Yes he is. Is Tobin a ghost? No, he's not."

"All kidding aside, we don't screw around at all," added Koules. "It's not a twin. It's not the son of Jigsaw. It's not his cousin Larry. We actually worked really hard -- with Tobin's input -- on making a story that fans would love and nobody thinks is hokey."

Though he remained coy about the specifics of his resurrection, Bell did confirm that the plot of Saw IV takes place chronologically after the events of Saw III. "I don't know a lot about what constitutes a prequel, or what constitutes a flashback," said Bell. "All I can tell you is that we meet a lot of new characters. It picks up after the last movie and continues to tell the story."

With so many questions lingering after Saw III, fans are understandably looking for some closure. "There are a lot of questions in this film that you're not gonna get answers to, but there's a lot of questions you do get answers to from Saw I, II and III," assured Bousman. "We answer questions from all three of them this year."

"There are probably four clues in Saw III that you might or might not have picked up on that all get answered in Saw IV," added Burg. "And there are clues in Saw IV that hopefully will get answered in the future."

"I'll say one thing: Remember in Saw III, when Shawnee (Smith) opened up an envelope and read things?" Koules said. "Do you know what was on there? That will be answered."

Bousman also noted that Saw IV will resume the storyline from Saw I involving Jigsaw carving puzzle pieces out of the flesh of his victims. We'll also learn the story behind the key attached to Shawnee Smith's necklace in Saw III.

"And you'll get to see one of Jigsaw's very first traps," Bell teased, adding that the victim is an unfortunate chap named Cecil.

One of the luxuries afforded by Saw's nonlinear plot is that the filmmakers are free to jump around the story's timeline, revisiting scenes and story threads from the previous films. "The thing about the Saw movies is that they don't happen sequentially," explained Bell. "Things get revealed out of sequence. Like in the Saw III, the scene in the bathroom, before Saw I, just before I lied down in the floor, they did that scene in Saw III," Bell said. "There's some of that in this film, where it fills in gaps that have developed over time in the previous Saw films."

"There are all of these time warps in all of the Saw films, and this one is full of them," added Bell.

As successful as the first three Saw films were, earning over $200 million combined at the box office, a fourth Saw wasn't necessarily a foregone conclusion. "We kinda always thought that we wanted to keep the franchise going, but we also didn't want to without having a great story," said Burg. "It was actually my partner Oren who called me up one day, we were playing around with a bunch of ideas, and he said, 'What if blah, blah, blah?' And I was like, 'Oh my God, that works!'"

While star Bell was game for a fourth turn as Jigsaw, director Bousman, who helmed the previous two Saw movies, needed some convincing. "I went on the record a million times saying I will not be back for Saw IV," noted Bousman. "I was very bitter when they handed me the script. I'd said no. It was at my birthday party and Marc gave me a copy of the script and I didn't even want to read it. And Mark said, 'Just read it.' And I went and read it and an hour and a half later, it was like, ok, I'm in. I'm doing it."

For Bousman, making a good sequel involved more than simply adding a few new characters and thinking up interesting ways to kill them off. "A lot of sequels fall into the 'sequel trap,' where they tell you the same story again; they just change the characters doing it," he observed. "We don't do that."

And while Smith, who played Jigsaw protégé Amanda in Saw II and III, won't be returning for the fourth installment, "there are some definite surprises as far as the people who come back," said Bousman.

The return of a few familiar faces isn't the only surprise in store for Saw fans. "I promise you, at the end of the movie, you'll watch it and go, 'Oh my god, how did they pull that off?'" Burg boasted. "As surprising as the ending of the original Saw was, I think this ending will be an even bigger surprise."

"If you guys guess the end of the movie, then you're my personal f*cking heroes, because I read the script and I didn't." Bousman.

And how will the gore of Saw IV compare to its predecessors? "It's way up there with the gore," declared Production Designer David Hackl, the man tasked with designing Jigsaw's various traps. "I just remember Darren standing on set, day after day, saying, 'More blood! We need more blood!' I think it's going to be more elegant, but I also think it's going to be a lot stronger. A lot of the traps are really unexpected. We tried a few different things as well. Not just things that are a puzzle, but things that are more of a mental puzzle."

"I thought I'd seen it all, but there is a scene at the very beginning of this movie where I physically regurgitated in my mouth," Bousman bragged. "I'm dying to see whether it gets past the MPAA."

He'll find out soon enough. According to Burg, their first appointment with the ratings gurus is scheduled for July 14th.

Saw IV opens on October 26th.

Be sure to check out ReelzChannel.com's Saw IV page for all the latest clips, images and news from the film.