Warehouse 13 returns for a third season on cabler SyFy with a gay role for Aaron Ashmore.

Ashmore will join the cast as ATF agent Steve Jinks when the show returns on July 11, gay glossy Out reported. Jinks has the ability to tell when someone is lying.

The show – part The X-Files and part Raiders of the Lost Ark – became an instant hit in 2009 when SyFy aired its initial 6-episode season.

Showrunner Jack Kenny told the magazine that the network pitched the idea to make Jinks gay.

“We were pitching this character and a couple of the execs are gay and said, 'What if Steve was gay?' We immediately jumped on the idea – but it's just a part of who he is, it doesn't define the character.”

Ashmore agreed, saying romance on Warehouse 13 is perpetually on the back burner: “[T]he show's not really about romantic relationships. These people's lives are crazy trying to save the world, so there's not a lot of time for love. I think when he interacts with some people, in the back of my mind as an actor, I'll decide that he thinks a guy is cute. But it doesn't play into how he does his job.”

Ashmore is best know for playing Jimmy Olsen on the CW's Smallville.