The immediate question is obviously will Walt and Michael make it to civilization, and if so what will they find? Thinking further ahead though, the question of interest is what purpose can Michael further serve on the show? If he's not rescued, would he want to come back to the Losties camp as the eternal detested pariah?(Compared to Michael, Sawyer's Gandhi) Will he become a permanent member of the Others?, Would the Others even take him? My guess is he'll be one of the casualties of season 3 either by being rescued or killed. Best case would probably be by sacrificing himself to protect the other Losties.

The producers have stated that Michael and Walt are off the island and will not be returning.

Did yoiu have a link to where they said that?

I'd also like to see that link. Would be a shame if thats the way Michael gets offed on Lost....exit stage right....lame. there's still the question of what Desmond saw off island, to think that the world/civilization was gone. I was hoping Michael's plotline in season three would help to answer that.

What the producers said on Ausciello's (Spelling) blog was that the Michael-Walt storyline would not immeadiately picked up, although they will attempt to refind it at some point later. Sorry, im not sure if we need the spoiler font but better safe than sorry.

micheal and walt will be back in season 4 i heard that they will not find home but they will find another island damon lindelof and carlton cuse said at the comic con they said his misson the others give him so he can get walt back isnt over yet sounds good

The immediate question is obviously will Walt and Michael make it to civilization, and if so what will they find? Thinking further ahead though, the question of interest is what purpose can Michael further serve on the show? If he's not rescued, would he want to come back to the Losties camp as the eternal detested pariah?(Compared to Michael, Sawyer's Gandhi) Will he become a permanent member of the Others?, Would the Others even take him? My guess is he'll be one of the casualties of season 3 either by being rescued or killed. Best case would probably be by sacrificing himself to protect the other Losties.
I think they will find some kind of help but I doubt we'll see it in S3 ... or if we do, it'll be at the end or even in the finale. That would make a great cliff hanger ... to see them reaching some kind of other civilization. We'd have to wait for S4 to know if it was really the outside world or somewhere else on the island or nearby.

Micheal should sacrifice himself for the other losties. What he has done to them is despicable, and horribly wrong.

I do think that the best thing the writers could do with Michael now would be for him to sacrifice himself to help the Losties in some way. This would ultimately redeem the character (though it could not really "make up" for the murders).