With corpses, Gargoyle Kings, and organ-harvesting cults, Riverdale‘s previous seasons certainly haven’t shied away from the macabre. But as was revealed at the show’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, the show will officially be celebrating Halloween in its upcoming fourth season. ComicBook.com was on hand for Sunday’s panel, in which showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa confirmed that a Halloween episode is on the way.
“It’s episode four.” Aguirre-Sacasa said of the episode, which will debut on October 30th. “We’ve never been able to do a Halloween episode because of scheduling and it’s just never worked out. We’ve got a really fun, spooky episode for everyone.”
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Of course, this is Riverdale, so the question of whether or not the episode will end in a fatality is certainly on fans’ minds. After series star Lili Reinhart asked if someone dies in the episode, Aguirre-Sacasa dropped a cryptic tease.
“Yes, someone dies, but no one at this table,” Aguirre-Sacsasa revealed, confirming that Reinhart’s Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), and Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) will be safe for the time being.
Outside of a potential murder, Aguirre-Sacasa also teased what costumes could be in store — including some that involve characters from the DC Comics world.
“I know what Archie’s gonna be dressed as and we’re trying to get clearance on some DC comic book characters for Cheryl and Toni (Vanessa Morgan),” Aguirre-Sacasa shared. “And Betty is at home giving out candy to trick-or-treaters. No fun allowed for Betty. No, no, no, you’ve got a fun story, a scary story.”
This Halloween episode comes as Riverdale puts more of a focus on the goings-on of Riverdale High. Of course, the season is expected to have its own dilemma to solve, with Jughead Jones’ fate seeming a little uncertain in a flash-forward sequence.
“I can’t say anything specifically to that,” Aguirre-Sacasa said of Jughead’s fate shortly after the Season 3 finale. “All I can say is, I guess things look very dire for Jughead in that scene, for sure.”
“Next season is the kids’ senior year. It’s their last year in high school, and we really want to locate their stories in the high school world,” Aguirre-Sacasa explained. “We started talking about what the big mystery could be, and we said it would be great if we kind of kept it in the high school kind of world. The other thing that we wanted to do is, this year Archie and Veronica weren’t that involved in the Gargoyle King mystery โ it was more Betty and Jughead. We loved the core four together in the finale. We wanted to do something that tied them all together for the core mystery and for a big secret, and it felt like having them all around that bonfire, minus Jughead, would be a way to tie them all together so that when we get to the central mystery of what happened that night and what led to the events of burning their clothes, it would be all of our foursome and not the kids split off again.”
Are you excited to see Riverdale do a Halloween episode? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
Riverdale‘s fourth season will begin Wednesday, October 9th, at 8/7c on The CW.