Oliver Queen has faced his fair share of bad guys bent on his destruction over the years on Arrow. He's been beaten, broken, shot, stabbed, and kicked off the top of a mountain by a pretty wide variety of villains. Now, it looks like WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes is hoping to use his upcoming appearance in Arrow Season 5 to leave a lasting mark on poor Oliver. Rhodes dropped by the Arrow writers' room and showed just what it is he'd like to do to Oliver.
The gauntlet is thrown indeed. Bending the poster of Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen was one thing, but Cody Rhodes was straight up kicking Oliver in the abs by the time he was done mangling the Arrow merchandise. Not the abs, Cody Rhodes! Not the abs!
In all seriousness, the tweet from the Arrow writers is a solid way to ramp up excitement for Cody Rhodes' appearance in Season 5 of Arrow. We're still a ways off from the Season 5 premiere in October, so every little glimpse we get behind-the-scenes can be interesting. Rhodes has already popped up on social media a couple of times to promote his upcoming stint on the show. He tweeted once that he was hoping to do justice to the role, then followed up with a picture of his preparations for what might be an epic on-screen showdown between his mystery character and Oliver Queen. We've actually seen more of Cody Rhodes' prep for Season 5 of Arrow than we have for some members of the main cast.
Unfortunately, we don't yet know what type of character Cody Rhodes will be playing in Arrow Season 5. For his sake, I really hope that he landed a bigger role than Nameless Goon #4 to get into fisticuffs with Oliver. Rhodes was obviously only cast on Arrow because of his bizarre relationship with Stephen Amell, and he wouldn't be the first big name to show up on a series for a bit role, but he's putting an awful lot of effort into preparing for his big debut on Arrow. If he's wearing a personalized workout jacket and staging photos of him taking out some early aggression on a poster, his character really should be more significant than a random extra who happens to pack an extra punch.
Cody Rhodes doesn't have much in the way of acting experience; most of his time in front of a camera has been during his WWE fights. Perhaps he's going the extra miles in preparing and promoting his Arrow appearance because he's hoping to use Arrow as a springboard to more acting jobs. A bad guy on a CW series isn't exactly the most high-profile role for anybody to use to break into the biz, but it's certainly feasible that Rhodes could be trying. If Stephen Amell can wrestle, maybe Cody Rhodes can act.
Hopefully, any fight scene between Cody Rhodes and Stephen Amell would hearken back to the epic Arrow stunt sequences of earlier seasons. Arrow has gone for more melee fight scenes over the past couple of years that really don't highlight Oliver's exceptional athleticism; we can be sure that Rhodes and Amell have what it takes to physically pull off a big battle.
To see what is confirmed to be coming next for Oliver and Co., check out our breakdown of what we know so far about Arrow Season 5. Don't forget to take a look at our fall TV premiere schedule to see when your favorite shows will be returning to the airwaves in the not-too-distant future.
