Writer Explains Why Kamen Rider Decade Returned in Wizard

Kamen Rider Wizard writer Sho Aikawa explained on Twitter why Kamen Rider Decade made a guest appearance in episode 52 of Kamen Rider Wizard, ahead of the show’s finale. According to Aikawa, the production received what he called a near-impossible request to bring back one of the original Riders for the episode. When told that only Kuuga or Fourze would carry real weight if they returned, the producer floated Decade as an alternative, and the writer said the team then built the schedule and budget around that choice.

A return by Joe Odagiri, who played the original Kuuga’s Yusuke Godai, was described as very unlikely, while Ryouta Murai, who played the parallel-universe Kuuga in Decade’s alternate-world arc, was said to be occupied with a television drama at the time. Kamen Rider Wizard’s own finale aired the following Sunday.