Dolph Lundgren Set To Return To Arrow

03/08/2017 06:46 pm EST

Konstantin Kovar, the Russian gangster played by action movie icon Dolph Lundgren on Arrow, will return to the small screen soon enough, the actor confirmed.

"I'm going back at the end of the season," Lundgren told EW. "I'm doing three more [episodes], trying to work it in somehow."

That's arguably not much of a surprise: Lundgren's character hasn't had a true resolution yet, and he's not only the main bad guy in the flashbacks but a character who was teased in last season's flashbacks, when Oliver had to promise Taiana that he would seek vengeance on her behalf for the crimes Kovar committed against her village.

Showrunner Marc Guggenheim also told ComicBook.com not long ago that there would be a big Kovar-centric episode coming up -- and while we've already seen one big Russian episode since then, it didn't feature Lundgren's character.

"Russia is very much in the zeitgeist these days, and coming into the back half of the year, we're doing a lot more with Russia," Guggenheim told ComicBook.com back in January. "We're going to do a Russia-centric episode, a flashback-centric episode like we did in the first three years of the show. We'll be doing that later on in the season and that will have Dolph Lundgren's character, Konstantin Kovar, very much front and center."

Guggenheim couldn't say much about what the episode would include, although he did hint that there might be a bit of political subtext in the back half of season 5.

The producer said, "In that episode -- assuming the scheduling works out because we're still writing this episode -- the plan is for Konstantin to have a very key meeting with a corrupt, American multimillionaire businessman. Make of that what you will."

It's not just Guggenheim who's taking the opportunity to expand outside of what he normally does and enjoy himself with the Kovar character, though.

"I have a lot of fun, because my character talks quite a bit, which is nice, and he's kind of comedic," Lundgren said of Kovar -- which is likely a treat for the actor, whose oh-so-serious performances in films like Universal Soldier and Rocky IV have become internet memes, even while Lundgren himself has rarely had time to let his funny side shine (excepting things like Kindergarten Cop 2).

In tonight's episode, titled "Checkmate," Oliver (Stephen Amell) gets closer to the truth about Prometheus. Meanwhile, Helix refuses to continue helping Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) until she does a favor for them.

Ken Shane directed the episode written by Beth Schwartz & Sarah Tarkoff.

MORE: Arrow EP Says Prometheus Was Inspired By Classic Movie Villains / Prometheus's Identity Revealed on Tonight's Arrow / Is Susan Williams Working With Prometheus on Arrow? / Arrow: Even the Actor Didn't Realize He Was Playing Prometheus At First

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