The beginning of the end of Arrow is almost upon us, and one more dead character is coming back for the final episodes.
Byron Mann, who was last seen in the Netflix original Wu Assassins, will be returning to The CW action drama, according to Deadline.
Mann appeared during Arrow’s first season as Yao Fei Gulong, a student of Talia al Ghul who was trapped on Lian Yu alongside Oliver and Slade Wilson. Yao Fei and his daughter, Shado, were largely responsible for training Oliver during his first year on the island. The training would shape his vigilante persona, with Yao Fei’s hood being incorporated in the original costume Oliver wore during the first three seasons.
Yao Fei would be killed in a flashback during the episode "The Undertaking," executed by the terrorist Eddie Fyers. He would remain a presence in the series, with Oliver regularly crediting Yao Fei’s training and sacrifice for his survival.
Mann joins an impressive list of actors returning to play long thought dead characters for the end of Arrow. Josh Segarra is returning to play Adrian Chase/Prometheus, the recurring villain from Season 5 who took his own life to best Oliver, and Colin Donnell is returning as Tommy Merlyn, whose death motivated Oliver to end his murderous ways as the vigilante.
This won’t be the first time any of these actors have returned, though. Mann would reprise his role as Yao Fei in the form of a hallucination during the Season 5 episode “Missing,” while Chase and Merlyn have also appeared as hallucinations to prey on Oliver’s guilt on multiple occasions. Donnell also returned as an alternate Earth version of Tommy who had become Prometheus in the crossover event “Crisis on Earth-X.”
Returning Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 9 pm ET/PT on The CW, Arrow stars Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, David Ramsey as John Diggle, Rick Gonzalez as Wild Dog, Juliana Harkavy as Black Canary, Colton Haynes as Arsenal and Katie Cassidy as Black Siren.