Riverdale creator and Archie Comics Chief Creative Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa feels the show's very DNA has changed now that Archie Andrews and the gang have reached adulthood.
During an exclusive interview with CBR, Aguirre-Sacasa discussed the future of the Archie-verse, including the relaunching of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic books and the ongoing Riverdale Season 5. Upon tying off the story threads for Season 4, which were cut short by last year's coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns, The CW TV show shook things up by jumping forward seven years in time. As a result, Season 5 has seen Archie and his friends dealing with very different problems than they did in high school, like Archie's PTSD from his time in combat and Veronica's toxic marriage.
"[Going into] Season 6, Archie is a sort of everyman hero and going on an everyman hero's journey and there are still elements from the comic books that are very true to the series -- Veronica is a daddy's girl, for instance," said Aguirre-Sacasa. "It's a matter of letting the characters and stories expand organically and the biggest difference is that now the characters have gotten older. They're in their 20s now and that sort of changes the DNA of the show a little bit and allows us to have Archie and Jughead sitting around drinking beer and it's totally natural because they're not teenagers now and we're not breaking any rules. It's a very porous boundary that we're operating in and discovering it episode-by-episode."
Based on Aguirre-Sacasa's comments in a separate interview with TV Line, that will only remain the case after Season 5 wraps up and Riverdale kicks off its sixth season with a special five-episode mini-event. Aguirre-Sacasa described these episodes as being "firmly in the horror genre" and confirmed they have their own arc. He also revealed the mini-event's title, teasing, "Things are a little bit darker, a little bit weirder, a little more twisted in Rivervale.”
Of course, just because Archie and the crew are adults now, that doesn't mean their days of relationship drama are behind them. If anything, Season 5 has featured just as many break-ups and re-pairings as seasons past, including a romantic rendezvous between Archie and Betty. Aguirre-Sacasa teased even more of that to come in Season 6, telling TV Line, "Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Jughead and Tabitha... all of them are very deep into it with love interests.”
Riverdale Season 5 airs Wednesdays on The CW, with Season 6 scheduled to premiere on Nov. 16.