Archie Comics “Riverdale” TV Series Announced

By: Nicole D'Andria

Archie and friends are getting their own television series, “Riverdale.” This will be a one hour drama based on Archie. It is being produced by Greg Berlanti of Berlanti Productions who is known for his other comic-related television shows Arrow and Flash.

Warner Brothers is teaming up with Berlanti to produce the show, which will be airing on Fox (UPDATE: The show has been moved to The CW.). It features the small town life of Riverdale which has some dark twists—because everything nowadays has to be gritty.  Though I’m not complaining too much. As a huge fan of Degrassi, which has rather dark themes at times, I know drama and darkness go hand-in-hand quite well together.

The cast of characters on Riverdale include all the classic characters you would expect, like Archie, Betty Veronica, Jughead and Reggie. The show will also feature the first openly-gay character in the Archie universe, Kevin Keller.  The rest of the characters in Archie are also expected to make appearances. Riverdale also includes several other characters owned by Archie Comics’ like Josie and the Pussycats (though I highly doubt Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man will be making appearances, sadly).

The drama will be penned by Glee writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Aguirre-Sacasa is the Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics and writes two series for the comic book publisher: Afterlife with Archie (which made the news for killing off the titular character) and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. He also wrote the remake for Carrie and the Broadway musical for… American Psycho?

I’m surprisingly excited for this series. I don’t really read Archie but I love binge-watching teen dramas and horror movies and this sounds like it could be a combination of the two if Aguirre-Sacasa’s credentials are anything to go by. Maybe a Pretty Little Liars with even higher stakes and suspense? We can only hope.