Everyone’s familiar with Archie according to Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
“Every time I bring up Archie, Betty, or Veronica mostly everyone has some memory of it or they know who I’m talking about. And it’s either someone who, when they were in summer camp, read the double digest. Or they’re in the summer market and they want their parents to buy the double digest.”
That kind of familiarity and passionate fanbase is what drew Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to make Riverdale, a 13 episode series, set to premiere on The CW in 2017.
“Since I started working with Archie a few years ago it really was a priority for John Goldwater, who’s the publisher of Archie and CEO of Archie, to get some live action stuff done.”
At it’s heart, Riverdale is a coming of age story and Greg Berlanti of The CW was the one they trusted to do it justice. “He’s done comic book stuff obviously but he’s also done coming of age like Dawson’s Creek. That was his first show.”
In trying to make Riverdale different they also decided to combine a coming of age story for Archie & Friends with a “noir mystery element.” This would allow them to ramp up the drama, put their characters through tough situations, and leave us with those cliffhangers we love (hate.)
“On some level, every kind of coming of age story is really a loss of innocence story. And it felt like telling a story where all the kids kind of grew up and saw the world for what it was, saw their parents for what they were, could be a really cool way to do this coming of age story.”
To learn more about Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s vision for Riverdale check out the full interview below!
Riverdale premieres in 2017 on The CW.
