Tom Arnold’s return to ‘True Lies’ and star Steve Howey’s ‘back fat’

Tom Arnold is back in the “True Lies” universe — this time on the small screen.

Arnold, 64, guest-stars in Wednesday night’s episode of “True Lies” (10 p.m. on CBS) as Arnie, an ex-Omega operative living off-the-grid who, along with his onetime Omega flame, Sharon (Kate Vernon), is being targeted for murder years later by a former colleague.

Arnie and Sharon, who’s living a quiet suburban life, are still bitter over their long-ago breakup; they (comically) bicker back and forth in front of Harry and Helen (series stars Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga), the husband-and-wife Omega agents trying to save their lives.

The series, which premiered March 1, is based on the hit 1994 tongue-in-cheek spy movie “True Lies” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis as Harry and Helen and Arnold as Albert “Gib” Gibson, Harry’s teammate and Omega partner.

James Cameron, who directed the movie, is an executive producer on the CBS series (in which Omar Miller plays Gib).

“There was actually a sequel to the movie that was written,” Arnold told The Post. “This was 2001 and [the sequel] was very good except it had Arnold and I coming up on a submarine that came on shore at the base of the Twin Towers, and then that terrible thing happened … and Jim Cameron said, ‘I’m just not able to make terrorism funny for a while’ of course. I thought [this role] was going to be a cameo and I was going through the script and I was like, ‘Oh, no, this is a whole thing.’”

Arnold said that the writers of Tuesday night’s “True Lies” episode, “Bitter Sweehearts,” slyly allude to his role as Gib in the 1994 movie.

“In the movie I said a line, ‘What kind of a sick b**ch takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer?’ I was going through a divorce with Roseanne [Barr] at the time and she did take the ice cube trays out of the freezer in my house. I remember coming to work and telling Arnold and Jim Cameron in makeup about that and Jim said, ‘Say that in the next scene.’

“So that was a real thing, and what’s great about [Wednesday night’s episode] is that it answers that question, because she, in this case Sharon, still wants to kill me,” he said. “I thought it was pretty funny that they connected the two.”

Arnold shares his scenes with Howey and Gonzaga, and noted their off-camera interactions with the cast and crew.

“They have great chemistry,” he said. “Steve Howey is a big dude and Ginger is a small person. You watch people when they’re not [in front of the cameras]. She’s like in charge of the whole operation, helping people with personal issues — and Steve was very worried because he thought he had ‘back fat.’ He has the best body and I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and he’s like, ‘No, from doing the show I haven’t been able to do 100 percent of my workouts and I’ve got a little back fat here.’

“I’m like, ‘Dude, I don’t even know what to say.’”

Arnold, who’s appeared on ABC’s “The Rookie: Feds” (as Miles Butkus), will reunite (sort of) with Schwarzenegger in “FUBAR,” his spy series premiering May 25 on Netflix.

“My role [in ‘FUBAR’] is really weird and quirky,” he said. “I play the guy who tortures people. He’s with the CIA. Arnold, in the series, has moved on from torture … but they wrote a really fun character for me. It’s like, ‘Oh, that guy will be back because he’s so weird.’ I look forward to that [series] being a huge success and coming back on and doing stuff with Arnold because I’m not in a scene with him.”

“FUBAR” will make a nice bookend to Arnold’s appearance on “True Lies” — and, who knows? — Arnie could reappear in another episode of the CBS series.

“They said, ‘We’re going to keep [Arnie] alive, we want to do this again,’ so that’s always good news,” Arnold said. “It was weird seeing the script and seeing ‘True Lies’ in the same font. I was thrilled they did what they did [with the series].

“It just shows you that, if you stick around long enough something might happen — and that hopefully, when the circle comes around, you’re still available.”