Riverdale Cast Compares Show’s “Absurdity” to the MCU

Riverdale has just two episodes remaining and to say that The CW series’ seven seasons have been a wild ride would be an understatement. Since its debut, Riverdale has taken some wild turns and had some truly insane moments and while that’s all been part of the show’s charm and appeal for fans, not everyone has exactly felt the same way. There have been plenty of people who have seen Riverdale as absurd, weird, and outright bizarre, and it has, at times, led to the series being the butt of plenty of jokes. Now, the cast of Riverdale is opening up about the absurdity of the series, comparing the show’s wild turns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe because, after all, Riverdale does take its inspiration from comics, too.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that our show is made fun of a lot. People see clips taken out of context. By 2019, Riverdale Cringe videos had become a genre online, be they TikTok reactions to particularly funny lines of dialogue or YouTube compilations of strange moments from the show,” Lili Reinhart told Vulture. “And are like, ‘What? I thought this was about teenagers.’ And we thought so as well—in season one. But it’s really not been easy to feel that you’re the butt of a joke. We all want to be actors; we’re passionate about what we do. So, when the absurdity of our show became a talking point, it was difficult. It is ‘What the f-ck?’ That’s the whole point. When we’re doing our table reads and something ridiculous happens, Roberto is laughing because he understands the absurdity and the campiness.”

Camila Mendes took things further by making comparisons to superheroes movies, specifically Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and reminding people that Riverdale is based on Archie Comics to things would naturally be a little weird.

“Superhero movies are the main thing at the box office these days, and those are the most absurd stories you could imagine!” Mendes said. “You’ve got a fucking talking raccoon fighting aliens in space! No one’s like, ‘This makes no sense.’ We’re a comic book; it’s supposed to be fun and fictional and weird. If you want to watch a teen show where there’s just a bunch of kids in a high school dealing with relationship drama, there’s a lot out there.”

What Is Season 7 of Riverdale About?

The seventh season of Riverdale goes where no season of Riverdale has dared to go before-the 1950s! Picking up where last season ended, Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) finds himself trapped in the 1950s. He has no idea how he got there, nor how to get back to the present. His friends are no help, as they are living seemingly authentic lives, similar to their classic Archie Comics counterparts, unaware that they’ve ever been anywhere but the 1950’s.

Why Is Riverdale‘s Final Season Set in the 1950s?

As Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told ComicBook.com earlier this year, the time jump allowed for the show to uniquely get back to the Archie Comics heyday of the 1950s.

“It is true, though the Archie started publishing much earlier than the 1950s, the decade that most people associate with Archie comics is the 1950s for whatever reason,” Aguirre-Sacasa explained. “The Archie comics, they’re so nostalgic, and I think when people think of time periods, they think of the 1950. Through the lens of nostalgia. So that was one big thing, absolutely. And even when we’ve done their iconic comic book costumes from the past, even though they were technically the 1940s, whenever anyone would write about it, they’d say, ‘Oh my God, they’re wearing their 1950s outfits.’ So, it was sort of like, ‘Okay, well, that is … ‘And even when we were pitching Riverdale, and this is true, when we were pitching Riverdale to try to do a TV show, the executives would say, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. Is this a show set in the ’50s?’ And it’s like, ‘No, no, no, it’s set in present day.’  So, there was that.”

He continued, “The other big thing that felt really resonant is the 1950s were when the modern idea of the teenager was born. Teenagers really didn’t … Teenagers as we know them, and as consumers of popular culture, as consumers of movies and television and comic books and things like that, that really … The birth of the American of the modern American teenager was the 1950s as well. So, it felt like, “Oh, well that’s Archie.” I mean, that is Archie. So, it felt like this is the time period, this is actually the time period. So those were also things that kind of resonated with us and why we landed on this time period. Also later … and the world is roiling later in the ’60s with counterculture, with the civil rights movement, with the sort of a gay liberation movement and things like that. And it felt like in terms of our thematic, which is the wholesome sweet innocent facade, and then the darker, more dangerous, more fraught themes and issues bubbling underneath, it felt like the ’50s sort of suited that to a T.”

When is Riverdale‘s Series Finale?

In May, The CW announced the series finale dates for both Riverdale and Nancy Drew. Both shows will air their series finales on Wednesday, August 23rd. Nancy Drew‘s finale will air at 8/7c with Riverdale‘s airing at 9/8c.