Manu Bennett Claims He’s Not Returning To Arrow As Deathstroke After All

It was only yesterday that Stephen Amell took to Twitter to reveal that Manu Bennett will be reprising the role of Deathstroke in Arrow‘s season 5 finale, but did he jump the gun? Executive producer Marc Guggenheim also commented on the actor’s return, but Bennett himself has something entirely different to say on the matter.

As you can see below, he’s claimed that he won’t actually be reprising the role of Deathstroke in Arrow after all and has pointed out that he’s in a totally different part of the world shooting something else while work on the finale takes place back in Vancouver.

So, what’s going on here? Well, it’s possible that he doesn’t realize Amell and Guggenheim have confirmed his return to Arrow and is simply responding to a barrage of Tweets from fans and attempting to make sure the surprise isn’t spoiled. Alternatively, he could just be trolling everyone, though it’s also possible that he hadn’t officially signed up to come back when that apparent confirmation was sent out and has now backed out for some reason.

It makes sense that a stunt double would be in Deathstroke’s costume anyway, but for now, it appears as if we’re going to have to forget about seeing Bennett in the finale. With any luck, The CW will send out something official soon to clarify matters, but in the meantime, Arrow just lost arguably its best villain all over again.