Just when you thought the once loveable “Archie” comics could not get any more racy or progressive, they just did.
The CW Television Network is allowing super-producer Greg Berlanti free range with a new live-action TV series based on the “Riverdale” comics by Archie Comics.
The series, which starts filming this spring features the popular “Riverdale” comic strip characters, who will explore even grimier depths of their hometown of Riverdale.
Archie Andrews, who has a secret, Betty Cooper, who pops Aderoll, Veronica Lodge, wealthy socialite, and their friends, plus Josie and the Pussycats are set to explore “small-town life and the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade,” Deadline reported.
While the show focuses on the love triangle between Archie, Betty and Veronica, other characters like Archie’s rival, Reggie Mantle, and his slacker best friend, Jughead Jones also appear.
And of course the recently introduced gay character Kevin Keller, will play a “pivotal role” in the show produced by Berlanti Productions with Warner Brothers Studios. Apparently “America’s Typical Teenager” no longer hangs out in soda shops with friends but dates druggies and explores the dark underbelly of the world immediately around him.
Archie Comics Chief Creative Officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, author of the Archie horror series Afterlife With Archie and Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina will write the one-hour pilot.
Aguirre-Sacasa and Producer Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow) both specialize in small town and coming-of-age TV dramas, such as Jack & Bobby (Berlanti) and Glee (Aguirre-Sacasa).
Archie Comics leads the mass-market comic book publishing industry. As “America’s Typical Teenager” is defined more and more by progressive grownups in pop culture media, the presentation of the teenage scene follows their whim of what it should look like, leaving real American teens behind.
