'Riverdale' Executive Producer on the Potential for Future Seasons
Executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who is also the chief creative officer of Archie Comics, has spoken with collider about what it means to bring the characters of Archie to life on the small screen. The showrunner also teased the possibilities going into future seasons.
"Originally, we were just going to do a straight coming of age, slice of life show. And before that, we were actually going to do it as a movie. We went out and pitched an Archie movie, and people really responded to the characters. They really loved the characters, but studios were wary because gone are the days of John Hughes," he said of the show's evolution.
"Big studios make big movies, and what we were pitching was a small character movie about first love and first kisses. The first big shift that happened was realizing that it’s not a movie, it’s a TV show. And then, when we took up the TV show, it was again a slice of life, coming of age show, like My So-Called Life or Freaks and Geeks. Again, people really loved these characters and really wanted to get in business with Archie and make the show, but everyone felt like, as much as people loved Freaks and Geeks and My So-Called Life, those shows only lasted a year. The way TV has shifted, over the last five years, may not support that kind of show anymore.
"Greg Berlanti is the one who first said, “I think you’re gonna need a dead body. I think you’re gonna need some kind of hook, or some kind of genre element that will hook the viewers.” That gave me the permission to explore darker themes."
On the future of the series, Aguirre-Sacasa said that "we definitely have started conversations about Season 2. It won't be a reset, completely. Obviously, the show is serialized. It's not a mini-series, or anything. There will always be a mystery/noir/crime aspect to it. It won’t always necessarily be a murder mystery, but it might be.
Source: Collider
