It’s officially senior year at Riverdale High. Riverdale returns for season 4 in less than two weeks, and according to the showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the core four’s relationships will be front and center.
“I guess the one thing that could break up the foursome, well, besides death, is something romantic happening. They’re great friends. They’ve been through stuff no other friends have been through,” Sacasa told Us Weekly exclusively at San Diego Comic-Con in July. “It may not seem like it, but I genuinely love these characters and I love this quartet. I want them to be OK. It feels like I put them through the ringer, and I do, but there’s a part of me that always thinks that they’ll survive, they’ll be OK, they’ll win.”
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina creator added that the season 4 mystery will play out more similar to season 1, calling the plot a “slow burn.”
“The reason for that is so we can tell character stories and friendship stories without the threat of ‘Oh my God, we might get killed tonight,’” Sacasa explained. “So, there are villains, for sure, and in some ways, they’re different from any villains we’ve ever done.”
Riverdale debuted on the CW in January 2017. The show stars K.J. Apa (Archie), Lili Reinhart (Betty), Camila Mendes (Veronica), Cole Sprouse (Jughead), Casey Cott (Kevin) and Madelaine Petsch (Cheryl). During season 3, Ashleigh Murray, who played Josie, exited the series to star on a spinoff titled Katy Keene. The new drama, which stars Lucy Hale, will premiere midseason.
Sprouse told Us in July that the characters will be sticking together as they head into their senior year.
“I think the characters are very much clinging to one another, in their last days of their high school years before their inevitable departure away from one another,” he explained. “So I think they’re hugging tight.”
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