Cody Rhodes Teases Return to ‘Arrow’ With New Picture

Cody Rhodes is heading back to Arrow.

The wrestling star took to Instagram today to share a photo of himself on a plane presumably headed to The CW‘s set in Vancouver, revealing that he’s ready to reprise his role of villain Derek Sampson — complete with a fresh new brown hair color.

“Back to brunette — back to Arrow,” Rhodes captioned the post.

Rhodes first appeared on Arrow as Sampson back in the show’s fifth season portraying the drug dealer and crime boss who was thrown into a vat of chemicals causing him to develop metahuman abilities — specifically causing him to lose the sense of pain and gain a healing factor. Initially sent to prison thanks to the Green Arrow, Sampson was released after District Attorney Adrian Chase was revealed to be the killer Prometheus. Out of prison, Sampson sided with Chase, only to be defeated and sent to prison yet again.

It’s behind bars, this time at Slabside Maximum Security Prison, where Sampson and Oliver Queen/Green Arrow will come face to face again. It was announced during Arrow‘s panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July that Rhodes would be returning as Sampson along with some other familiar Arrow villains, though Rhodes was credited in the announcement as Cody Runnels.

Not much is known about what fans can expect from Rhodes’ return as Sampson, but what is known is that fans might be seeing quite a bit of him. In an interview with ComicBook.com ahead of the All In pay-per-view wrestling event last weekend that both Rhodes and Arrow star Stephen Amell were involved with, Rhodes revealed a bit about Amell’s wrestling as well as his own stint for Arrow‘s seventh season.

“Well, Stephen got it in his blood,” Rhodes explained. “The first time he came back, we were in Barkley Center when he did the match with Stardust. When he came to the curtain, he got a standing ovation. He got in his blood, man. It doesn’t matter what age you are, if you’re a millionaire already, the feeling of pro wrestling for an entertainer, for a show person, there’s nothing like it. And he wanted a singles match immediately after that. Immediately.”

“Arrow marches on, and we didn’t necessarily get there with Stardust,” Rhodes continued. “But when we talked about this event, I obviously thought what a wonderful moment that would be, and at the same time, I was heading back to Arrow for five episodes now.”

Five episodes is a significant amount of time and it could be a hint that Oliver might just be in jail for a good part of the season, something Amell himself hinted at back in July.

“I don’t know if that’s going to influence it, but Oliver is definitely in jail and I think that he’s going to be in jail I think longer than people expect,” Amell said.

Are you looking forward to seeing Rhodes reprise his role in Arrow‘s eighth season? Let us know in the comments below!

Arrow will return with new episodes on Monday, October 15th, at 8/7c on The CW.