Neighbours star Guy Pearce confirms he will be returning as Mike Young in new series of Australian soap

Guy Pearce has confirmed that he will be returning to Neighbours for the rebooted show.

The actor, 55, will be seen reprising his role as Mike Young for the new series of the Australian soap later this year.

Pearce was a regular resident on the show’s fictional Ramsay Street from 1986 to 1989.

Fans were left bereft last year when it was announced that the show was coming to an end after 37 years on air with a with some of the soap’s iconic characters, including Pearce, Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue returning for the finale.

Neighbours was miraculously saved a few months later when streaming service Amazon Freevee stepped in and question marks hung over whether Pearce would be back.

He was last seen on screen reuniting with his former lover Jane Harris (Annie Jones) and the couple bought a house on the street together.

With Harris’ return confirmed, it would look odd if he didn’t at least put in an appearance.

Now, Pearce has confirmed that he will indeed be back.

Talking on the Good Weekend Talks podcast, he said: “Annie and I called each other, ‘What do we do now, because we’re living in the street?’

“And she said, ‘Well I’m all right because I’m on the show anyway, but what are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ So we’re in the process of working it out.

“Obviously, if I’m going to extricate myself from the show, I want to do it respectfully. I wasn’t just gonna go, ‘Well, bad luck. You had your chance, that was it,’ you know. So there may be a little appearance or two, shall we say.”

And it’s not all talk, Neighbours have now officially confirmed Pearce’s return on Twitter, writing: “It’s official folks... Guy Pearce is riding back into Erinsborough as Mike Young in all new episodes of #neighbours later this year...”