Riverdale Recasts Reggie, and Ross Butler Endorses His Replacement
The CW last night announced that Riverdale had found its new Reggie Mantle in Charles Melton, [...]
The CW last night announced that Riverdale had found its new Reggie Mantle in Charles Melton, another relative newcomer, and the show's previous Reggie had some kind words for the show and his replacement.
Melton has previously appeared in minor roles on Glee, where he may have met Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, as well as on American Horror Story.
TVLine first reported the casting.
In the comics, Reggie is a major part of the Riverdale gang, Archie Andrews's arch-nemesis and something of the town bully. He is significant enough that he made his way into the theme song of the 1960s The Archie Show animated series, second only two Archie himself.
On screen, Reggie had a significantly smaller role; while he fought with Archie in the show's second episode and then dueled with him to become the captain of the football team a few weeks later, for the most part Reggie's role was minor.
That was dictated largely by the availability -- or lack thereof -- of actor Ross Butler, who joined the cast of Riverdale around the same time he took a role on Netflix's 13 Reasons Why.
It was the second-season pickup for 13 Reasons Why that precipitated the need to recast Reggie.
"We love what Ross did with the role of Reggie [this season], but because of his commitments to other projects, we couldn't use him nearly as much as we would have liked," Aguirre-Sacasa said last month when the recasting was first announced.
"I'm so happy that The CW, Greg [Berlanti], Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa], David [Rapaport] and Sarah [Schechter] gave me, an Asian-American, a chance to play a traditionally-caucasian character, Reggie," Butler said in a video posted to Twitter. "In light of recent casting news, I am even more excited and more proud that they decided to keep Reggie Asian-American. It means a lot to me, it means a lot to the Asian-American community, and so I just wanted to say thank you guys again, one more time. I support Charles Melton all the way, passing the baton off."
Riverdale finished out its first season on Thursday night. It will return for a second season on The CW, but it isn't yet clear whether it will be a fall or midseason premiere. More information on that will likely come out next week during the network's upfront presentation.
More Riverdale:
- Riverdale Casey Cott Upgraded to Series Regular
- How Could Sabrina Fit Into Riverdale Season 2?
- Riverdale EP On Introducing the Supernatural, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch
- WATCH Reggie Butler's Final Appearance as Reggie In Deleted Finale Scene
