Gone but certainly not forgotten. Luke Perry’s death was addressed in a new trailer for Riverdale that debuted at New York Comic Con on Sunday, October 6.
The trailer begins with Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), Perry’s onscreen son, grabbing breakfast at Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe with pals Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes). The group are having a normal discussion, as Sprouse’s Jughead asks: “So, camping this weekend — are we still on?”
Archie and the gang seem in good spirits as they continue to discuss the details of their upcoming trip. “I’m open,” Veronica says. “But what are we talking about here?”
“The woods,” Betty chimes in to add. “But remember, this could possibly be our last summer to do this, because next year, we’ll be getting ready to go to college.”
As Archie’s cell phone vibrates, he notices that his father, Fred Andrews (Perry), is calling him. He answers the phone, simply saying “Hey, dad.”
Archie immediately drops his phone, and then he himself falls over. His friends promptly rush to his aide.
“It hurts me that anyone would have to say goodbye,” an unidentified male voice says off-camera. This is followed by Archie saying, “Fred Andrews will always be a part of Riverdale” as a photo of Perry’s character surrounded by a floral wreath hits the screen.
Perry died on March 4 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California. Days earlier, he suffered a massive stroke at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 52.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum’s tribute will be featured during Riverdale’s season 4 premiere episode on Wednesday, October 9.
At Riverdale’s New York Comic Con presentation on Sunday, the cast members opened up about Perry’s death.
“It was very difficult for us all,” Skeet Ulrich, who plays F.P. Jones, said during the panel, according to Deadline. “To me, in some ways, it meant reliving something incredibly painful. We felt the need and the want [to pay him tribute]. But I don’t think any of us wanted to live in that again — [the first episode of the season was] a beautiful episode, but incredibly hard to perform.”
The news outlet also reported that Molly Ringwald — who plays Perry’s character’s ex-wife and Archie’s mother, Mary Andrews — described the loss as being “very cathartic.” However, she noted that “we all dealt with it in different ways.”
“I didn’t get to go to Luke’s memorial so [this episode] was really like my good-bye to him,” she added. “It was kind of what I needed. He was my guy. It felt like a nice goodbye for me.”
Season 4 of Riverdale premieres on The CW on Wednesday, October 9, at 8 p.m. ET.
