Comic-Con 2019: What We Learned About Riverdale Season 4!

The cast and creative team of Riverdale returned to Comic-Con this year to promote the show and pay tribute to Luke Perry. We were in the press room and picked up some scoop on season 4 from KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madeline Petsch, and executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen season 3

Remembering Luke Perry

Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said that the first episode of season 4 will be a tribute to Luke Perry and his character Fred Andrews. He shared that Luke always wanted Shannen Doherty to make a trip to Riverdale, and she will be in the first episode as “an emotional character”. Get your tissues ready! We will also see a lot more of Archie’s mom Mary (Molly Ringwald) this season.

It’s Senior Year! Plus Figuring Out That Cliffhanger

The theme for season 4 is “Senior Year”, so we will get to see some more football, Vixens, prom and even a battle of the bands between The Pussycats and The Archies! That’s right, Archie is starting a band. Can’t wait for that!

Each episode will have a flash-forward moment of that night from the season 3 cliffhanger when we saw Betty, Veronica, and Archie standing outside half-naked with Jughead’s hat on the ground. The mid-season finale will take us back to that night and answer a lot of questions.

A Spooky Episode and Another Musical Episode

I was really excited that Roberto confirmed another musical episode this season! Madeline Petsch put in a bid for the musical to be Sweeney Todd, which would be fitting for Riverdale, don’t you think?

Roberto also revealed that they are finally filming a Halloween episode! It will include some fun scenes with Toni and Cheryl who, he hopes, will be wearing some DC Comics costumes (he didn’t say who as he is waiting on clearance from WB to use the costumes). The Halloween episode will be spooky and someone does die, but no one who was in the press room with us (quick, read that list of who was in the room again!). The episode will air on October 30.

Archie Likes Getting Physical

I asked KJ Apa what his favorite part of the show is to film and he said that he really enjoys the physical scenes and he had a lot of fun filming the scene where Archie breaks out of prison. He’s looking forward to playing football this season and Archie and Reggie having some football moments together.

Betty’s Difficult Decision

I complimented Lili Reinhart on her brave and brilliant performance in the season 3 finale when Betty had to make the decision whether or not to kill her father. Lili said that it was a tough thing to shoot because it was like two o’clock in the morning and it was freezing and she made the choice to play into the shock of the situation because it’s very tough to play. She also shared that we will see Betty struggling with wanting to mourn her father but feeling guilty about it because of the terrible man that he was.

Veronica Goes to College…Or Does She?

Camilla Mendes teased that in season 4, Veronica will be really focused on college applications and getting out of Riverdale. Meanwhile, her father is going to do everything in his power to make going to college very difficult for her. One of his dirty tricks is sending paparazzi after her so she’ll end up in the news.

I asked Camila if the relationship between Veronica and her mother would be explored more in season 4 and she said she hopes so. She said that Veronica wanted her father to go to jail, not her mother, so she would love the opportunity to focus on the mother-daughter relationship.

Cole Sprouse Wants Comic-Con Exclusives

We didn’t get much out of Cole – he’s good at avoiding spoilers – but he did reveal that he had a mask to put on so he could walk the Comic-Con floor because he is a huge Godzilla fan and there was a Godzilla exclusive he wanted to pick up.

Riverdale season 4 premieres on Wednesday, October 9, at 8/7c on the CW.