Riverdale & Katy Keene Crossover Officially Announced

In the years since Jason Blossom’s body was first found in Sweetwater River, Riverdale has grown to be a bonafide hit for The CW. The series, which provides an updated take on the Archie Comics characters of the same name, has captivated fans and resulted in two spinoffs. The latest extension of the “Archieverse”, Katy Keene, is set to premiere on The CW early next year — but not before both comic and television audiences get properly introduced to the titular character. On Wednesday, E! reported that a small crossover between Riverdale and Katy Keene is underway, as one of Riverdale‘s upcoming episodes will feature a subplot between Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and Katy Keene (Lucy Hale).

The Riverdale episode will air just a day before Katy Keene‘s series premiere and will see Veronica visiting New York for a college admissions interview. While there, Veronica will run into her “old friend” Katy Keene and go on a shopping spree, something that was later confirmed in a tweet by showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

“Before Katy Keene officially premieres, we all thought it would be super-fun to do a crossover that took Veronica to Katy’s world—New York City—and established Katy in the Riverdale universe,” Aguirre-Sacasa and fellow executive producer Michael Grassi, said in a statement. “For our first Riverdale/Katy crossover, we couldn’t be more excited that it’s old friends Veronica and Katy—Cami and Lucy—having fun and heart-to-hearts!”

Hale’s portrayal of Katy Keene has already been mentioned in the world of Riverdale, after Veronica had her friend make some surprisingly-meta Halloween costumes for Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) and Munroe “Mad Dog” Moore (Eli Goree) in a recent episode.

Katy Keene will take place five years after the events of Riverdale, and will already have some pretty strong ties to the flagship series. Namely, Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray) exited Riverdale midway through last season, in order for Murray to play an older version of the character on Katy Keene. The series is set to follow the lives and loves of Katy, Josie, and their friends in New York City, and provide a much more “aspirational” take on the “Archieverse”.

“It is a watershed moment for the company,” Archie CEO John Goldwater previously told ComicBook.com of Katy Keene. “We are called Archie Comics, so most people don’t realize the breadth and depth of our IP. We literally have hundreds of brands, thousands of characters, obviously some way more well-known than others. Comic book people know Katy but the world at large don’t know Katy. And for us to be able to start to mine the depth of our library is a transformative moment for Archie Comics. It’s such an exciting moment in time for the company and it’s as exciting as when Riverdale first came along. It is that kind of seminal moment.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW. Katy Keene will debut on February 6, 2020 on The CW.