Rob Thomas to work with Rob Thomas on iZombie

Fans of iZombie are about to find out if one good Rob Thomas deserves another.

In 1995, Rob Thomas became the lead singer of the band Matchbox 20, and went on to huge success both with the band and as a solo artist. In 1998, Rob Thomas created the cult hit Cupid, which despite its short run, earned fantastic word of mouth that he parlayed into several other television series. The twist? These two are completely separate people.

It was a confusing time for fans of either for a while, these two guys with the same name coming to public attention around the same time, and with the internet still not quite sophisticated enough to let anyone easily look up that they were in fact not the same guy. Luckily, the situation is largely cleared up these days, and the two Robs now both enjoy their own careers without actually crossing paths. Until now, that is.

Writer Rob is currently sitting pretty as the creator of the CW series iZombie, which quickly rose above the unforgivable sin of infidelity to its comic book inspiration to become a highly acclaimed work chock full of his inimitable style (and it also helped that, let’s face it, the comic was never very good to begin with). It’s currently nearing the end of its second season on April 25, and that finale will include a guest appearance by Singer Rob as himself.

All we know so far is that Steven Weber’s delightfully hammy energy drink CEO Vaughn du Clark hires Singer Rob to create a new promotional song for his drink Max Rager, which by this point he is fully aware turns certain people into zombies, and wants to exploit that for reasons that aren’t quite clear yet. Exactly how big a role it will be and whether Singer Rob will actually get to impact the story beyond this is unclear, and given Writer Rob’s love of upending audience expectations, it’s probably not safe to make any bets yet.

This actually isn’t the first time Writer Rob has made reference to his name twin, as toward the end of Veronica Mars, a character declines an invitation to a Matchbox 20 concert because, “Rob Thomas is a whore.” Before any Singer Rob fans get upset, the line is actually a sly dig from Writer Rob against himself for the numerous compromises he had to make with the show to appease his corporate overloads (most infamously, giving a guest appearance to Paris Hilton in the second episode).

Hopefully this one will see them on somewhat better terms, and who knows what else might lie in the future now that this door has been opened? iZombie has suffered from middling ratings throughout its run and may not survive past this finale, but at least it allowed these two to finally work together, just so the rest of us could see what it looks like.