Psych Director Steve Franks Reveals a Riverdale Connection

07/26/2017 08:16 pm EDT

When Psych returns to USA Network as a holiday-themed TV movie in December, creator and director Steve Franks promises that fans of Riverdale will recognize at least one location in the film.

Franks wrote the movie Big Daddy, which starred Cole Sprouse -- a connection which prompted us to ask whether he would like to see Riverdale's Jughead return as the villain of a future Psych movie (Franks has said he hopes to make six).

"I certainly would like to tie anything from the past into now, because I'm a big fan of the past. I love the past as well as I love the future," Franks said. "There is actually, for those people who watch it, about the midpoint of the movie, we shoot one of our locations in a very iconic Riverdale location. So there is already, engrained in the Psych movie world a Riverdale/Psych connection. So you'll see it at a great, surprise moment in the movie."

This would not be the first time: a recurring setting in Psych, featured most prominently in the show's season one finale and in Psych: The Musical, was Riverview Hospital in Vancouver. The disused mental health facility recently played two roles on Riverdale: first a facility where the Coopers sent Polly to hide her pregnancy, and later Southside High School.

That word "iconic," though, almost makes us wonder whether it might be Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe that makes an appearance in the movie.

Psych, which ran from 2006 until 2014 on USA, centered on Shawn Spencer, a slacker whose photographic memory and keen sense of deductive reasoning made him a perfect detective -- except for his utter contempt for the local police, born out of a bad relationship with his cop dad (who is also the one who groomed his detective skills; it's all very complicated). He found a way to have his cake and eat it too (along with lots of pineapples over 8 seasons) by convincing local law enforcement that he was a psychic and contracting out his services as a consultant.

James Roday, Dule Hill, Tim Omundson, Maggie Lawson, Corbin Bernsen, and Kirsten Nelson will return. Recurring antagonist Despereaux, played by Cary Elwes, is expected to be back as well base on Elwes's own comments during a recent comic book convention appearance. Chuck and Thor: The Dark World actor Zachary Levi stars as the villain.

Even before the movie was officially announced, rumor had it Psych would be returning to Vancouver -- where the series originally filmed, and the location tagged on Hill's Instagram photo -- for a feature film shoot. At the time of the show's cancellation three years ago, USA executives had teased the potential for a return down the line.

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