John from Cincinnati is moving to Tree Hill.

Ex-Cincinnati star Austin Nichols is joining the cast of One Tree Hill, sources confirm to me exclusively. He’ll play an indie movie producer who expresses interest in turning Lucas’ first novel into a film. And because OTH loves its triangles, he’ll also share a past connection with Peyton!

My OTH mole describes Nichols’ gig as “heavy recurring,” which I’m pretty sure means we’re going to be seeing a lot of him.

In related news, props to me for getting through yet another OTH story without saying anything mean. Not sure what’s come over me.

Remember the mystery man that Mia told Peyton (Hilarie Burton) she had met in the One Tree Hill season finale? You know, the guy who
knew Peyton’s biological mother back in the day? The dude we were led
to believe might be Peyton’s real pops? No? Me neither. But listen up
anyway, ’cause this is about to get very interesting. I think.

Actor-musician John Doe (Roswell, seminal L.A. punk band X) is joining the One Tree Hill cast this season as said mystery man, sources confirm to me
exclusively.

One of those sources, OTH executive producer Mark Schwahn, says
the identity of Doe’s character (who, ironically, is a John Doe himself at this point) will remain a mystery… for a little while at least. “Whether or not he’s [Peyton's] father will be the question,” Schwahn explains. “[But] we will find out one way or the other.”

See, told you it’d get interesting. It did, right? (Additional reporting by Lindsay Soll)