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‘Riverdale’ Shows The Dark Side Of Classic ‘Archie’ Comics Characters

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 01:51 PST, Aug 1, 2016

Riverdale, the fictional town in Archie comics, will be recreated on television in an upcoming teen drama series of the same name, which will be based on the popular characters featured in Archie comics. Viewers will get to see Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Josie, and other characters recreated in Riverdale, CW’s upcoming series inspired by Archie comics.

However, the television show might not be exactly based on the comic book stories as the creators have expressed a wish to have a different take on the series. Although the series features the regular characters of Archie comics, the creators have tried to change the established perception of Archie fans by immersing the characters within the surreal, dark, and sometimes-weird atmosphere of Riverdale.

The series begins with a mysterious murder and the viewers will witness some twists and turns that will lead to the mystery eventually being solved. As Archie comics fans would expect, Riverdale will include plenty of romance intertwined in the mystery to spice up the thriller. According to the Hollywood Reporter, earlier works like Twin Peaks, Virgin Suicides, and Heavenly Creatures have strongly inspired the creators of Riverdale to give their show a surreal feel.

Cole Sprouse, who famously shared the role of Ross’s son, Ben Geller, with his twin brother on the hit show Friends, plays Jughead Jones in the series. Jughead Jones will be the show’s primary narrator, and the actor has revealed that his style of narration will be reminiscent of the film noir genre. Importantly, it was also recently revealed that Jughead identifies as asexual.

Riverdale will also feature veteran actor Luke Perry, who will play the role of Fred Andrews, Archie’s father. Previously, Luke had worked in teenage dramas like Beverly Hills 90210, which made him one of the biggest breakout stars of the 1990s.

Being a veteran of the industry, Luke might be considered as a mentor to younger actors. However, Luke considers his co-stars to be too smart to have a father-figure on the sets. Instead, the veteran tries to mentor his young co-stars through his actions, emphasizing the importance of professionalism by being punctual and by treating the collaborators with respect and decency. According to Den of Geek, Luke Perry feels that the key challenge is to keep the team together because, in his opinion, team dynamics might change if one actor gets more attention than the others in the media.

The creators might have deviated from the original comic book series in terms of the theme and the storyline, but they studied the comic book characters in great depth to enable the actors to get into the mindset of the original characters, though the characters will be shown in a darker setting than to original light-hearted comic books. The primary purpose of the producers was to recreate Riverdale without relying heavily on the comic books and, according to Yahoo!, Lili Reinhart, the actor who portrays Betty Cooper, spoke about how die-hard fans of Archie comics will get to see a different version of their favorite characters.

“We don’t want to copy the comics. We want to show the darker side of all these characters you grew up seeing in a very happy, bright light.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, Archie Andrews appears to be more desirable in Riverdale than his portrayals in earlier works.

Apart from being a musician, an athlete, and an all-around decent guy, the young man in his signature letterman jacket is sure to attract romantic interests. Luke Perry’s Fred Andrews looks like the best dad for the title character, and Ashleigh Murray’s Josie McCoy makes a perfectly ambitious bandleader of the Pussycats.

The famous duo of Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper may be both best friends and worst enemies in the comic book series, however, the television series Riverdale depicts Veronica clearly outshining Betty by being the black-haired bombshell that is not afraid to lock horns with the wealthy Cheryl Blossom. And even though every character in the show appears to be perfect on the surface, every character has ultimately has a secret. Betty has an overbearing mother, Archie is desperately trying to hide a love affair with his music teacher, and Veronica has no choice but to live in the shadow of her bigwig father. Ultimately, Riverdale takes what once was a lighthearted series that spanned many generations and shows the dark side of the original comic book series in the midst of a thriller storyline.

[Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for SiriusXM]

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