The Riverdale Cast Reflected On The Series Ending With Season 7

Fans have known for over a year that Riverdale is ending with Season 7 when actor KJ Apa, who plays Archie Andrews, promised fans in May 2022 that they’d go out “with a bang.” Now that the series finale, “Goodbye, Riverdale,” is airing on Aug. 23, expect one last nostalgic walk down memory lane as 86-year-old Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) “turns to a special friend to help her relive her last day of senior year with her friends as they were, their memories restored,” per The CW’s description. That, of course, also includes Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse).

Announcing the cancellation last May, The CW boss Mark Pedowitz explained to Deadline that he thought Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s “iconic” dark take on the Archie Comics series, which premiered in January 2017, had run its course and “seven years is the right amount” to wrap up the story. “I am a big believer of giving series that have had a long run an appropriate send-off,” Pedowitz said at the time. “We had a long conversation with Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] yesterday and he is thrilled with the decision. We are going to treat the show in the manner it deserves. It’s been an iconic pop culture star and we want to make sure that it goes out the right way.”

Aguirre-Sacasa, who wrote the series finale episode, later told Decider that he and the writing staff didn’t want the show to “go out on fumes” in Season 7. “We didn’t want to tell stories about, you know, Betty being a therapist and treating people, and Archie trying to be a foster father to his uncle’s long lost son, and Tabitha franchising Pop’s all over the country,” he elaborated. “We just kind of wanted to go back to high school, but we didn’t want to repeat what we’d done.”

In an exit interview with Vulture, the Riverdale cast reflected on their journeys and the series ending. “We can all be happy that we had a f*cking consistent job for seven years. I could speak for probably all of us: We will never again do something that’s 100-plus episodes,” Reinhart said, while also pointing out some of the challenges they faced as well.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that our show is made fun of a lot,” she added, referencing the many “Riverdale Cringe” videos online. “People see clips taken out of context and are like, What? I thought this was about teenagers. And we thought so as well—in Season 1. But it’s really not been easy to feel that you’re the butt of a joke. We all want to be actors; we’re passionate about what we do. So when the absurdity of our show became a talking point, it was difficult. It is What the f*ck? That’s the whole point. When we’re doing our table reads and something ridiculous happens, Roberto is laughing because he understands the absurdity and the campiness.”

The main Riverdale Season 7 cast also includes Madelaine Petsch (Cheryl Blossom), Casey Cott (Kevin Keller), Vanessa Morgan (Toni Topaz), Charles Melton (Reggie Mantle), Drew Ray Tanner (Fangs Fogarty), Erinn Westbrook (Tabitha Tate), and Mädchen Amick (Alice Cooper).

Apa, for one, is already looking ahead. “I have a lot to learn about myself. I spent so many pivotal years on it and had to navigate through lots of big changes while the show was the only really consistent thing in my life,” he told Vulture. “I mean, I’ve walked around with red hair for the past seven years... There’s a part of my identity that I want to get back that I don’t really feel connected to.” What is he most looking forward to post-Riverdale? “Not having red hair.”