Back when Riverdale was first rumored to be in development, one of the most interesting aspects of the show was a report that it would have ambitious Halloween episodes a la The Simpsons‘s Treehouse of Horror — and that those episodes would feature elements of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s acclaimed Afterlife With Archie.
Aguirre-Sacasa has, in the time since he launched Archie’s best-selling horror line, gone on to become the Chief Creative Officer for the publisher and serves as the showrunner on Riverdale, The CW series which will launch in early 2017.
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During a conversation with ComicBook.com at Comic Con International: San Diego last weekend, Aguirre-Sacasa teased that the Halloween episode was going to be “crazy” and a highlight of the show’s freshman season.
Luke Perry, who plays Archie’s father Fred Andrews in the series, told me in an interview that Aguirre-Sacasa won’t tell the cast anything about the Halloween episode.
So what did the showrunner tell me?
Not a whole lot, but certainly enough to get excited when he confirmed that “Afterlife is still on the table.”
For those not in the know, Afterlife With Archie is a horror series set in an alternate version of the familiar Archie Comics universe. After the death of Jughead’s dog, an attempt to raise it from the dead inadvertently launches a zombie apocalypse, and the familiar love triangles of Riverdale take a back seat to survival horror.
Riverdale is, itself, not entirely as bright and innocent as the usual Archie story. In the pilot episode, the town is reeling from the recent death of a high school student and Archie Andrews is trying to carve out a niche for himself in the competitive local music scene following a summer affair with his music teacher. Veronica Lodge comes to town, her family dealing with disgrace after her father was accused of embezzlement and fraud.
The series stars KJ Apa as Archie, Cole Sprouse as Jughead, Lili Reinhart as Betty, and Camila Mendes as Veronica. It will debut on The CW at midseason.
