An original cast member of The Flash is set to make a guest spot on the long-running Arrowverse series, marking their first appearance on the show in five years. Yes, good news, Flash fans, it’s been announced that Robbie Amell is returning as Ronnie Raymond for two upcoming episodes of season 8, beginning with episode 11.
Amell, cousin to Arrow‘s Stephen Amell, was a major recurring presence in The Flash‘s first season, starring as Caitlin Snow’s fiancé/later husband who served as the original Firestorm alongside Victor Garber’s Martin Stein. After he sacrificed himself to save Central City, Ronnie popped up a couple times across seasons 2 and 3, via flashbacks, Speed Force hallucinations and multiversal doppelgangers.
Fans might be getting déjà vu right now as this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that an OG Flash star is reprising their role for season 8. It’s previously been revealed that season 1 regular Rick Cosnett, who played Eddie Thawne, is also set to guest star at some point. Entertainment Weekly, who broke the news today, confirmed that Amell and Cosnett won’t feature in the same episode.
This is intriguing as both Ronnie and Eddie are dead, so you would expect these two actors’ comebacks to be linked, but that’s not necessarily the case if their returns are coming in separate weeks. How do these two ghosts from Team Flash’s past return? Could Ronnie actually come back from the dead so he and Caitlin can get their happy ending, after all? This is the DC universe we’re talking about, where death is infamously flexible.
Whatever the explanation behind it, it’ll mean a lot for fans to see Amell back on The Flash, given that he’s been AWOL for the past five seasons. With it feeling like the series must be starting to wind down, it’s fitting that it’s looking to the past and bringing back some old, much-missed faces.
For the moment, The Flash season 8 is unfolding its big opening “Armageddon” crossover event. “Part 3” airs tonight (Nov. 30) on The CW.