Raise your hand if you have a lot of questions about 'Riverdale's time jump... Good. Now it's time to get some answers.
Raise your hand if you have a lot of questions about Riverdale's time jump...
Good. Now it's time to get some answers.
Season five of the hit CW series is looking to shake things up tonight with an all-new episode featuring the highly anticipated flash forward storyline. Now that we've seen our favorites graduate from Riverdale High, we're jumping ahead seven years and it's time to see what Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica and the rest of the Pop's-loving gang have been up to.
(Mini Spoiler Alert: It's been a rough few years for absolutely everyone!)
To get the inside scoop on what's to come — and to finally figure out which year the show is set in! — ET called up Riverdale creator and executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa for a little pre-episode chat.
Happy almost time-jump, Roberto! What were your goals with this first flash forward episode and what were you hoping these seven mysterious years into the future would do for the series?
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: Well on a practical level we really wanted to — I call them still the kids [Laughs] — but for the kids to be playing characters closer to their age. And I think one of the hallmarks of Riverdale has been that it isn't a procedural. Every episode is its own genre and it's constantly reinvent itself and it felt like if we had stayed in high school, we might run the risk of playing the same beats and the same stories over and over again. So I think the idea was that it would sort of be a creative boost for the writers, a creative boost for the actors and after four years of very gonzo, intricate, incestuous plotting, it was like, "Oh!" Well, we can just drop everyone into new storylines that feel organic to the characters, but allow us to feel like we can move a little more nimbly. Without the burden of, you know, Bughead dating or the burden of Archie still wrestling with the immediate death of his father. It felt like a way to freshen everything up and I feel like that was the big goal.
Let's chat about the timeline because we're a bit confused. We see in a sneak peak clip for Wednesday's episode that Veronica tells her husband, "It's 2021, Chad. Haven't you heard? Women can have it all now." Does that mean that the show's timeline has finally been defined and that it's taking place in present-day?
Very good question! I mean the aesthetic will always be timeless, but we did let that go. It's funny and I'm not sure, but I think in some banner in the graduation episode, it says "Congratulations Class of 2021."
It did! That was our next question. We're so confused — what's the real 2021?
[Laughs] Yeah this is kind of like the bummer of not having the natural summer break in between seasons four and five because it really highlights how totally insane the Riverdale timeline really is, but yes it feels like we are finally in the present day though the aesthetic will remain hopefully as timeless as ever.
Now that we've established the timeline, does this mean we could have Kiernan Shipka from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina come over to Riverdale for a visit?
That's a really good question and I will tell you that we haven had a lot of conversations about figuring out a way to bring characters from Katy Keene to Riverdale and from Sabrina to Riverdale, so it's more possible that it's ever been, let me say that.
For even juicer time-jump secrets — and a romance update on what's next for Varchie, Barchie, Bughead and Choni! — check back to ETonline immediately after watching tonight's episode!
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
RELATED CONTENT:
