‘Riverdale’: Mark Consuelos Speaks out About His ‘Riverdale’ Return

The seventh and final season of  has been bringing a lot of familiar faces back into the mix. Those faces include Mark Consuelos as Hiram Lodge, despite him being killed by a bounty hunter sent by his own daughter in Season 6, officially exiting in the Season 5 finale. He returned in last week’s episode, Season 7, Episode 13, “Chapter One Hundred and Thirty: The Crucible.” Although, this time around, he wasn’t necessarily the cold-hearted Kingpin that everyone loved to hate. Instead, he is the star of the popular TV show, Oh, Mija! along with wife, Hermione Lodge. Thanks to the show’s 1950s setting, a lot of characters that died were able to be brought back, with Hiram as one of them, and some with a whole new life.

In an interview with ComicBook, Mark Consuelos spoke out about his long-awaited return to Riverdale, admitting that it didn’t take much to convince him when he “got a call from Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa], I think the season had started already, and I made my… I just accepted the fact that maybe I was the only character to die on Riverdale and not come back. I was like, ‘Alright, that’s cool.’ Everybody that dies comes back over and over and over again. Maybe Hiram’s the exception. He dies, and that’s just it. And I was cool with it, but when he called, he had me at, ‘Would you be interested?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ I was like, ‘Yes, yes. The answer is yes.’ And he goes, ‘Don’t you want to hear what the episode’s about? I’m like, ‘Sure, you can tell me what the episode’s about, but I would love to come back.’”

“So yeah, I jumped at the opportunity,” Consuelos continued. “It gave the opportunity to say… To see my old friends, to see the sets that I spent days and hours on and the crew. It was not often that you get to say goodbye twice, so I just thought… I was extremely grateful for the opportunity.”

Mark Consuelos’ return to Riverdale was a nice surprise. Even though Hiram Lodge has done some shady and unforgivable things on the show throughout the last several seasons, since his introduction in Season 2, he has kept everyone on their toes. Hiram’s return also gave fans a chance to see Veronica’s dynamic with her parents in the ’50s and how it differs from the present, which still includes neglect but a lot of love. 

It’s unknown if we will see Hiram again before the show comes to an end, but at least Consuelos is one more star that fans will see before Riverdale, as not everyone will be returning to the Town with Pep. New episodes of Riverdale air on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW, with the finale airing on August 23.