Though we entered the year on high alert with comic book adaptations, 2025 has proven to be a good year for the genre. With four movies and multiple shows now out in the world, things are looking up from recent years, and Disney+ just confirmed that the future is taking a surprising turn. Disney+ may be the home for every Marvel Studios production, with hit shows like WandaVision, X-Men ’97, and Daredevil: Born Again, but the streaming platform has begun work on another major comic book adaptation, and it has exactly zero connectivity to Marvel. That said, it may owe Marvel a debt of thanks for giving it an extra push.
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According to a new report from Deadline, Disney+ is about to become the home for none other than Afterlife with Archie, an hour-long drama based on the horror comic from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla. Not only is the new show based on that series, but it will reunite the team behind both Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina with both Aguirre-Sacasa himself and Greg Berlanti executive producing. To make matters doubly confusing, none other than Warner Bros. Television is also producing the series.
Afterlife with Archie TV Series Finally Confirmed, But at Disney+
Afterlife with Archie made its comic book debut back in 2013, putting a gruesome and violent spin on the title character and all his pals. The series would not only bring zombie hordes and survival to the town of Riverdale but expand into other notable horror frameworks too, including appearances by vampires, ghosts, and even Cthulhu himself. It’s unclear at this early stage in development if the Afterlife with Archie TV show will be just as grim, brutal, and R-rated as its comic book counterpart, but the source material does paint a specific picture about the series.
Though the Afterlife with Archie comic series only went on for ten issues total over three years, it revitalized the Archie brand in a major way. In fact, the success of Aguirre-Sacasa’s writing in Afterlife with Archie gave way to even more horror-twinged takes on the classic comic characters but also down the path that brought us Riverdale, the seven-season series on The CW which Aguirre-Sacasa created and showran. Even though the comic series itself brought Sabrina the Teenage Witch into the fold, its success resulted in a spin-off, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. That series would, of course, give way to the Netflix series of the same name.
Afterlife with Archie Can Thank Marvel for Landing at Disney+
Two major questions need to be asked following the news of Afterlife with Archie, though, which many readers are perhaps wondering about themselves. The first, why is this series going to Disney+ and not HBO Max? And the second, how is this show going to live on Disney+ and be what fans want it to be?
First we have to consider how Warner Bros. has been operating since merging with Discovery. In that time the company has licensed out shows to other streamers in a way that seems unthinkable to some other studios. Though new TV shows that are tied into the DCU remain at HBO and HBO Max, others that use popular DC characters have been sold to other streamers, such as Batman: Caped Crusader, which streams on Prime Video. With no other Archie-centric shows happening, and the series likely not being connected to Riverdale or Chilling Adventures of Sabrina in a major way, it makes sense from the WBD perspective to put the series elsewhere.
Second, how can a series that features zombies eating the flesh of the living and other terrifying horrors exist on Disney+? In the same way that Warner Bros. priorities have changed, so have Disney’s. Over the past year, the company has been merging both the Disney+ and Hulu apps into the same place for subscribers who have access to both streamers, with the content library for both intertwined. This means the top TV shows list on the Disney+ app will also include not only Bluey, but Alien: Earth.
Furthermore, Disney+ has already revealed that dark, violent content can be released on the platform and actually thrive. Daredevil: Born Again a big hit for the streamer upon its release, pushing the family-friendly Marvel Cinematic Universe into gritty and violent territory. Even still, their most recent release, Marvel Zombies, is quite literally a show all about zombies eating well-known characters with blood, guts, spines, and brains all over it.
Suffice to say, Afterlife with Archie as a show on Disney+ sounds like something made-up entirely for an April Fool’s prank, but not only is it real, but it makes a great deal of sense.
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