'Riverdale' Star Opens Up About Bughead, Toni Topaz Relationship

Fans of Jughead Jones and Betty Cooper's relationship -- affectionately nicknamed 'Bughead' -- [...]

Fans of Jughead Jones and Betty Cooper's relationship -- affectionately nicknamed "Bughead" -- have been breathing a lot easier in the second half of Riverdale's second season. While the couple briefly broke up, they're firmly back together now and facing the craziness of the season together.

But before Season 2 even began, when news that Vanessa Morgan had been cast as Toni Topaz, a fellow member of the Southside Serpents and a friend to Jughead (Cole Sprouse) broke, Bughead fans didn't take well to the idea that someone might come in between the fan-favorite couple. When Toni and Jughead shared a kiss right after Bughead did breakup, that was difficult for fans to handle as well. Now, Morgan is opening up about the brief Toni/Jughead moment, chalking a lot of it up to teenage hormones.

"I mean I personally feel, look, if it's two hormonal teenagers, he just went through a gauntlet, he just got beat up," Morgan said in an interview with ComicBook.com. "She was impressed, so their emotions are running high. She just gave him a tattoo and she kissed him. It was one of those spur of the moment, emotions running high thing."

Morgan also explained that Toni and Jughead realized pretty quickly that they were just friends, which is something that audiences have seen blossom on the show.

"I think she just thinks of him as like a good friend," she said. "They just happened to kiss. They probably realized after, 'We're better as friends. Let's not do that again.' It was just a heat of the moment type of thing. Now, I like how their friendship has blossomed and they seem to have each other's back. I really like their relationship."

That relationship includes Toni being open with Jughead about her bisexuality. As audiences saw, the morning after the kiss Toni revealed to Jughead that she likes girls as well as guys. While it may have briefly stunned Jughead, he took it in stride which according to Morgan is just as well as, if Toni had to pick one gender over the other, it would probably be girls.

"Obviously Toni told Jughead, she's warmed to girls, obviously she's interested in both genders, it's a spectrum," Morgan explained. "If she had to pick, she prefers girls. She probably wouldn't want to hurt him in that way. They're better off as friends."

While seeing the Toni/Jughead friendship develop is something fans have both gotten used to and support -- after all, with all of the challenges and changes Jughead and the Serpents have experienced its positive that Jughead has someone to lean on from that part of his life -- that wasn't always the reception fans had to anything involving Morgan's character. Even before the first episode of the season aired, Morgan was receiving death threats from fans. Morgan said that the passion fans have for Riverdale and specifically Bughead caught her completely by surprise.

"It was so crazy," Morgan said. "I experienced it right when I got cast, just all the fans that started following me, or all the controversy behind the fact that I might break up Bughead. I knew it was going to be crazy once it actually started airing. I've never seen a fandom like this before, where they're so passionate about the show."

Now that the fan upset is behind her, Morgan has been able to enjoy that fan passion and Morgan revealed that she herself was a Riverdale fan before joining the cast and thinks it's cool that she gets to be part of Riverdale now.

"It's so awesome," she said. "I was so excited. I was already a fan of Season One. When I got the call that I booked this role, I was going to be a Southside Serpent, I was like 'Oh yes, that's so cool.'"

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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