Riverdale Casts Veronica’s Ex-Boyfriend

Riverdale is bringing one of Veronica’s ex-boyfriends to town, and it sounds like he will be trouble even beyond the inevitable love triangle it will create with Archie.

EW reports that The Good Wife‘s Graham Phillips will appear on two episodes of Riverdale in the role of Nick St. Clair, and he sounds like he may be the next iteration of a Chuck Clayton-type character.

“Nick is an old classmate of Veronica’s from New York, and despite his parent-pleasing veneer, he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing: a hard-partying Lothario with dark desires and an unchecked sense of privilege,” said Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. “His arrival in Riverdale will threaten Archie’s relationship with Veronica, and may even put some of our characters at risk.”

That tracks with something Aguirre-Sacasa recently told ComicBook.com: that part of season 2’s big mystery will keep fans guessing as to who might be in danger week to week, not just at the end of the season as things start to get wild.

“Season 1 was a murder mystery: it was who killed Jason Blossom?” Aguirre-Sacasa explained. “It was a crime that happened in the past. And until the very end, ti was not like our characters were in danger. They were sniffing around a mystery but it wasn’t until the last few episodes when you felt like ‘Oh my God, something really bad could happen.’ Season 2, it’s still noir and it’s still crime, but it’s much more like a suspense thriller and you feel like our characters are at risk in a much more visceral way. So it’s I think a scarier season in that way.”

The character of Nick appears to be original to the show, and not based on a specific character from the comics. Recently, Riverdale has added Vanessa Morgan as Toni Topaz, a potential threat to the Betty/Jughead dynamic. Between the two, it seems that the classic Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle will continue to be back-burnered for now.

Riverdale‘s second season premieres October 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.