It looks like “Riverdale” will be going through a major time jump during season 5 with Archie and the gang returning years after high school has finished…
Now that high school is almost over for the teens at “Riverdale,” the show is planning a major time jump for the characters in season 5.
Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa confirmed this week that a time jump between season 4 and season 5 has been in the works for sometime now, but there will be a slight delay in how it unfolds due to the production shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic that caused “Riverdale” to end earlier than expected.
So season 4 ended up at 19 episodes instead of 22 episodes as originally planned.
According to Aguirre-Sacasa, when “Riverdale” returns for season 5, the first three episodes will essentially be the ones that should have closed out seaosn 4, which will include both prom and graduation for the teens on the show. After that it appears the “Riverdale” high schoolers will return as college graduates when the time jump is complete.
“We’ve been talking and planning on doing a time jump,” Aguirre-Sacasa told TVLine, “And of course, usually time jumps happen in between seasons, because there’s a tease at the very end. It felt like maybe what we’ll do is start with the last three episodes [originally intended for season 4]”
“So what we’re doing is picking up right where we left off for the first three episodes, and then doing a time jump… after those three episodes.”
While he wouldn’t speak to specifics in terms of how much time will pass, the “Riverdale” showrunner hinted at Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica as well as the rest of the cast reuniting after college would be finished thus preventing issues with all of the teens attending different schools across the country. Towards the end of “Riverdale” season 4, Betty was headed to Yale, Archie was planning on attending the Naval Academy while Jughead was working on acceptance at the University of Iowa.
“To me high school was better than college,” Aguirre-Sacasa said to TV Guide. “And since all of our characters would be going to different colleges, my instinct has been to leapfrog over four years, and kind of pick up with everyone there.”
Leap frogging those college years would actually bring Archie and the gang back to town at a much closer timeline to the actors who actually portray the parts. K.J. Apa (Archie) is only 22 but all of his main co-stars are older with Lili Reinhart (Betty) at 23, Camila Mendes (Veronica) at 25 and Cole Sprouse (Jughead) as the oldest at 27.
As of now the plan is for “Riverdale” season 5 to debut in the fall on the CW but there’s still no exact word when production on the shows can begin again due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
