Riverdale Season 5 Starts Filming

A new era for The CW‘s Riverdale has officially begun. On Monday, series showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa took to Twitter to share a behind-the-scenes look at the first scene being filmed for the show’s upcoming fifth season, after months of production being shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scene in question apparently involves Archie Andrews (KJ Apa ) sitting in a steam room, with Aguirre-Sacasa joking that “even in a Covid world, some things never change”.

Riverdale’s fifth season will bring the hit Archie Comics-inspired series into a new territory, as the early episodes will deal with the teenage characters going through the milestones of high school prom and graduation.

“It’s funny, we had shot almost two-thirds of episode 20, which was going to be our prom episode. And we looked at that footage and tried to see if there was a way we could cobble together that episode,” Aguirre-Sacasa explained back in May. “We actually had shot the prom, where a lot of very dramatic things happen, but we still hadn’t shot some big character moments between Archie and Veronica and Betty and Jughead. So we kind of just couldn’t do that.”

“However, when I saw the cut of 19, what’s great about it is all of the kids are in one big story together united against Mr. Honey. And it does end on a pretty shocking, disturbing cliffhanger,” Aguirre-Sacasa continued. “So, it sort of was like, “Oh wait a minute, this could be a great season finale” and then prom would be a great season premiere next year. So it worked out in kind of the best way possible given everything. Obviously we would have loved to have finished the full season, and the last three episodes are fantastic. But to me, this one is fun. It’s a special conceit and it brings everyone together, which I think people love.”

After that, the series is set to jump forward in time at least half a decade, allowing the characters to return to the fold of Riverdale as adults.

“Season 5 we’re actually doing, I believe, a seven-year time jump into the future so we’re not going to be teenagers anymore,” Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper on the series, revealed in an interview last month. “I’m really psyched about it. I think it’ll be nice to play an adult. But I also really appreciate that Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa], our showrunner, was like, ‘Yeah, let’s revamp.’ You know, we’re not just stuck in high school for seven seasons.”