‘Riverdale’ Star Mark Consuelos Teases Kelly Ripa’s Debut Episode

Mark Consuelos is just as excited about Kelly Ripa‘s Riverdale debut as fans of the CW drama.

The actor, who plays the evil Hiram Lodge on the hit teen drama series, recently spoke with PopCulture.com about working alongside his wife.

The Live With Kelly and Ryan host will be guest starring later this season as Hiram’s mistress, and her introduction will be a surprise to viewers when it happens.

“It’s amazing. I think you guys will be very surprised with how she comes on the show,” Consuelos told PopCulture.com in a phone interview on Thursday. “I know they’ve already released the fact that she’s gonna play Hiram’s mistress. But I think just with what she does on the show that you guys will be really really surprised and pleased with that as well.”

He added, “It’s always a blast to work with Kelly and she loves Vancouver and so we got to spend a nice weekend in Vancouver when she came up. It was a lot of fun.”

The couple met on-set when they both worked on All My Children back in the ’90’s, and Riverdale is the first time they have gotten to act together in 10 years.

Aside from the fact she is the new woman in Hiram’s life, Ripa’s character, Mrs. Mulwray, is described as “confident and tough.” The character was also described as an “icy, femme fatale… who gets caught up in a conspiracy that’s much bigger than she initially realized.”

“She’s really beautiful and she carries a gun,” he teased of Ripa’s character.

The show has not revealed when the actress might make her debut on the series, though fans have speculated in the past it might be in the January 30 episode titled “The Red Dahlia.”

Fans did get an early look at the new character during the trailer for the second half of the season, where she could be seen looking scared but determined as she carried a gun in front of her.

Despite his status as Riverdale‘s No. 1 bad guy, Consuelos knows that many fans have become obsessed with Hiram and credits the writers for creating a multidimensional villain for him to play.

“I think that’s the trap in a character like this is if you play it a certain way he can be one-dimensional, and I think that they’ve given me some great things to do,” Consuelos said. “I think you see, even through all the bad stuff, that he really really cares about his daughter [Veronica (Camila Mendes)] a lot. And he probably has to work on how he shows that.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.