After a lengthly pause due to COVID-19 restrictions, Riverdale has finally set to resume production on Season 5. The showrunner, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa confirmed the news on Instagram earlier.
Aguirre-Sacasa wrote, "After fourteen days of quarantining 🇨🇦 and months of prep, #Riverdale Season 5 starts shooting tomorrow. Spent the night in the bubble, reminiscing with these lovely people and celebrating @lilireinhart 24th birthday 🎂 How time flies. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the gang this week. Here we go...." Attached was an image of Aguirre-Sacasa with Camila Mendes (Veronica Lodge), Lili Reinhart (Betty Cooper), Cole Sprouse (Jughead Jones) and Drew Ray Tanner (Fangs Fogarty).
Season 4 of Riverdale was cut short due to COVID-19 affecting the show's filming schedule. Instead, the last remaining episodes of Season 4 will kick of Season 5. Riverdale's fifth season will start by showing the students' final days at Riverdale High, segueing into the gang's post-college years with a seve-year timeskip.
Aguirre-Sacasa already teased the death of Archie Andrews earlier with a series of cryptic images. A leaked casting sheet added some ground to that theory, alleging that Archie was set to join the army. This idea has some precedence in the comics when Archie joined the military in 2018's Archie 1941. Written by Brian Augustyn and Mark Waid with art by Peter Krause, the story takes place in the past as Archie suits up to fight in World War II. At one point in the comic, Archie was presumed dead, echoing Sacasa's cryptic posts about a possible "death" for Archie.
Many changes are rumored to occur in the seven-year time skip. In another leaked casting sheet, it was rumored that Veronica Lodge married a Wall Street broker named Chad, meaning Archie and Veronica's teen romance comes to an end. It was also rumored that Jughead would have a new girlfriend with whom he is living with, meaning Betty and Jughead's love affair faces a similar bleak fate.
Another rumor posited that Pop Tate's granddaughter would join the cast as a saavy young businesswoman with big plans for her grandfather's small town restaurant. For now, it's all rumor and speculation, however as nothing is set in stone.
Riverdale stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Casey Cott, Vanessa Morgan, Mark Consuelos, Skeet Ulrich, Marisol Nichols and Madchen Amick. The series returns for Season 5 in January 2021 on The CW.