‘Riverdale’ Boss on That Premiere Death, Rivervale’s High Body Count & More

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Riverdale Season 6 premiere, “Chapter Ninety-Six: Welcome to Rivervale.”]

As the five-episode event arc to kick off Riverdale Season 6 begins, Jughead (Cole Sprouse) narrates the introduction to the new town of Rivervale. “While it might seem familiar to you, like a town you visited before, I can assure you it’s not that same town,” he promises. And oh, is he right.

After all, by the end of the premiere, everyone’s standing around while Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) tears out Archie’s (KJ Apa) heart! But don’t worry, Betty (Lili Reinhart) assures him right before, they conceived earlier that night and will be having a baby. And Archie’s sacrifice will restore Rivervale to its former glory, Cheryl says.

So what’s next after that trippy premiere? TV Insider turned to showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to find out.

So you tore out Archie’s heart. What will we see of him going forward?

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: As everyone will see, this five-episode Rivervale event has a much higher body count than even our normal Riverdale episodes. What I can say is you won’t see much of Archie for a while.

Are you ruling out seeing anyone who does die in this event again during these episodes?

I’m not ruling that out. Especially since some of the episodes in the event are set during different time periods and some of our actors play other roles in those different time periods. So you may not necessarily see all of our characters in all of the episodes, but you might see some of our actors in other episodes playing other roles.

Like at the end of Season 5 with the flashback.

Exactly.

Kailey Schwerman/The CW

What can you say about Rivervale and everyone in the aftermath of sacrificing Archie?

In the next episode, we continue with those threads. At the end of Episode 601, at the ceremony, Betty says to Archie, I’m pregnant with your child. That’s how we find Betty in 602. We find Cheryl and Nana [Barbara Wallace] toasting Archie’s sacrifice because the maple trees are pumping out maple syrup. Each episode is like a mini movie, though they all link together and tell a serialized story. For instance, in Episode 2, the spotlight is on Toni [Vanessa Morgan]. Episode 3, the spotlight is on Veronica [Camila Mendes] and Reggie [Charles Melton]. Episode 4, it’s on Cheryl. So each one is a mini movie, though they all link up and events from one episode carry into the next episode. The episodes only get weirder and scarier from this point on.

So Betty’s actually pregnant?

She’s actually pregnant.

Dr. Curdle told her she wasn’t the only young, healthy woman barren. What’s going on there?

At this moment in time, Rivervale is in a crisis point. The trees aren’t producing maple syrup. No new babies are being born. Everyone’s got problems. And the idea is that once Archie’s sacrificed, things will start going back to normal. Things that are barren will become fertile again. The river that’s been dry, the waters will rise, things like that. But yeah, there is the sense that in 601, something is out of whack, nature is out of whack, or the natural order of the world is out of line. And it’s Archie’s sacrifice that sort of gets everything back on track.

The CW

You mentioned that Episode 2, we see the focus on Toni, and she has a lot going on: working, being a mom, being a Serpent, stuff with Cheryl… Are we going to see all of that?

Exactly. In Episode 2, we see Toni as a serpent. We start with a very big, knockdown drag out fight between the Serpents and the Ghoulies, which we haven’t seen in a while. The episode very much cuts to the core of Toni being a mother, not only to her baby Anthony, but the idea that she is sort of a mother to all of the kids at Rivervale High as the guidance counselor. She’s sort of fighting for the lives of her baby and all of the children of Rivervale in the next episode.

Before the insanity of the end of the episode, both Betty and Archie and Jughead and Tabitha [Erinn Westbrook] are moving pretty fast. Betty and Archie are talking marriage and kids, and Jughead and Tabitha do move in together as discussed last season. What did you want to do with both couples in this Rivervale event?

Archie and Betty, we do continue their story, though obviously Archie is dead.

One of the fun things about this event arc is that we are getting to invest in our characters and kind of move their stories forward. So a lot of what Jughead and Tabitha are sort of wrestling with is the idea that they just moved in together, they’re starting this new adventure together, and there seem to be forces conspiring against them, a curse potentially, some other supernatural thing is gonna kind of stand in the way. But we’re really seeing them as a couple sort of struggling against these external forces and also struggling with the fact that they’re new in this relationship and moving in. And is it too soon, are they strong enough?

Kailey Schwerman/The CW

But Betty also mentioned the Archie and Jughead of it from high school, and Veronica’s past with Archie came up in the premiere. What can you say about any love triangles in this event?

We definitely are playing some triangles and we are definitely servicing, in hopefully surprising ways, some of our classic ships. For instance, I would say people who are fans of Choni will have a lot to be excited about later in the event arc.

We know that Sabrina [Kiernan Shipka] is coming in Episode 4 to help Cheryl. What can you say about which Sabrina this is, especially given how her show ended?

Without spoiling anything, I will say that the events of the end of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina are addressed in this episode of Rivervale and we do get some answer on how Sabrina is back and helping people.

What can you tease about how she helps Cheryl and their dynamic?

Their dynamic made so much sense and they had such a great rapport on set — I was on set for those days — and it felt so natural and kind of seamless and almost like, God, why didn’t we do this sooner?

The CW

That bomb that was under Archie’s bed comes up in the premiere. How much more will we hear about it in Rivervale?

That will not be the first time you hear that bomb and that ticking. That’s sort of something that is haunting these episodes, and you’ll hear them over and over again.

Will anything else from Riverdale bleed over into Rivervale in a similar fashion?

There’s tons and tons and tons of plot points and characters and elements from Riverdale that sort of creep into Rivervale in very weird, strange, sort of even darker ways, but yes, absolutely.

And so while they’re awake also?

Exactly.

Let’s talk about what Cheryl’s up to, because she spends the premiere making everyone indebted to her until she has Archie’s heart. So what’s next? Given the end of last season, I assume she’s going to be setting her sights on Betty and Jughead?

We definitely see her more kind of as a witch woman as we did in Episode 1. Episode 4, Madelaine gives such a tour de force performance. The entire episode, you’re with her. She’s in literally every scene of the episode. And it’s sort of like this epic, witchy love story. And yes, you do see her at odds with a lot of her friends and neighbors.

Kailey Schwerman/The CW

And what’s coming up with Veronica and Reggie and that casino? What’s different about this business for her?

One is Reggie came up with this idea and two, no one has really been against their businesses, but there are a lot of people who are against the idea of Rivervale — and by the way, Riverdale — becoming a casino town. But again, we’re really kind of examining their relationship. In [Episode] 2, there’s a great story with Veronica and Reggie, that’s about their relationship. Same in Episode 3. You’ll see where they’re divided and where they’re united, so if you’re a Veggie shipper there’s good stuff coming, absolutely.

We saw Archie and Betty investigating Cheryl in the premiere. Who’s leading the investigation into the happenings in Rivervale going forward?

The person who becomes most aware and most conscious of the weirdest that’s going on in Rivervale is Jughead Jones. He sort of starts to feel like, “Hey, something’s not right about this. Why do I feel off?” That big investigator is Jughead.

There’s already something off about his and Tabitha’s apartment.

Exactly. I will say that in the premiere, there are a couple of very big clues about the rest of the Rivervale event and how it resolves itself.

Related

The CW Midseason 2022 Schedule: 'The Flash' & 'Riverdale' Move, 'Naomi' Premiere & More

What else can you tease about what’s coming up in Rivervale and how this is going to lead into the rest of the season of Riverdale?

Rivervale is horror, it’s overtly supernatural, which are things that we have flirted with her in Riverdale, for sure. We’ve never really done supernatural. And in my mind, Rivervale is very horror and it’s very supernatural. It’s sort of a prelude to the rest of Season 6, which also sort of has very strong horror overtones and a supernatural overtone as well. So it sets the tone for the rest of the season, perhaps not as extreme, but it’s definitely setting the stage for a more mythic, apocalyptic Season 6.

What can you tease about the effects we’ll see in Riverdale?

The same way that in Rivervale, we see events echoing from Riverdale in the past, we will see events from Rivervale echoed in Riverdale on the other side of the five-episode event. So you will feel like there’s a continuum and that everything will hopefully knit together and make sense.

Riverdale, Tuesdays, 9/8c, The CW