‘Riverdale’ Showrunner on Why They Chose ‘Carrie’ for This Season’s Musical Episode

In a few months, Riverdale is set to take the Archie Comics world into a whole new direction, as the show’s cast of characters put on a production of Carrie: The Musical. While that combination might not be something that fans would naturally put together, it sounds like there’s a pretty good reason for it.

During a recent press screening (via TVLine), Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was asked why exactly Carrie was chosen for the students of Riverdale High. And as he revealed, Aguirre-Sacasa partially chose it thanks to his personal connection to the story.

“I’m a huge fanatic of Carrie, the novel and then the movie,” Aguirre-Sacasa admitted. “I was obsessed with the Broadway flop of Carrie: The Musical. Five or six years ago, one of my good friends revived it off-Broadway, and he revealed it to be the gem that I always knew it was. So we thought, ‘This would thematically be a great musical for Riverdale to do.’”

And as Aguirre-Sacasa argued, the iconic horror storyline has some strong narrative parallels with the world of Riverdale.

“That show also has archetypes like the good girl next door, the nice boy who takes Carrie to the prom.” Aguirre-Sacasa added. “It felt like we could play with these archetypes.”

And while not every Riverdale cast member will end up singing in the production, putting on this musical will allow the show to get back to its high school-centric roots, something that has been an active effort of the show in the back half of the season.

“On some level, Riverdale is a crime and a mystery and a pulp show, but there is an element of coming-of-age and of high school, obviously.” Aguirre-Sacasa pointed out. “And doing the school musical is such a rite of passage that we wanted to do that.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.