‘Riverdale’ Showrunner Teases the Season 5 Premiere and It Won’t Disappoint Cheryl and Toni Fans
The Riverdale fandom may be buzzing about the big time jump, but they’ve got to get through the final days of high school when season 5 premieres on The CW.
As you may know, the fourth season was cut short by three episodes due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. So viewers never received the highly-anticipated prom or graduation episodes. Now, the show’s cast and crew are gearing up to film the upcoming season. Then recently, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa teased the Riverdale Season 5 premiere on his Instagram, and it does not disappoint, especially if you’re rooting for Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan) and Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) — aka Choni.
‘Riverdale’ Season 5 will start where the finale left off
When Riverdale Season 4 wrapped with 19 episodes in May 2020, Aguirre-Sacasa revealed the final three episodes will be moved to season 5. The showrunner told Entertainment Weekly:
When we talked about season 5 and some of the big events like prom and graduation, it would feel like a cheat if we somehow didn’t do those. So we’re essentially starting the season with the last three episodes of season 4. And partly because they’re dynamite episodes. I mean big, big, big changes happen. We are continuing the mystery and the relationship drama straight into season 5.
Meanwhile, Aguirre-Sacasa hinted the “great season premiere next year” will feature prom, as the episode was next in line. He also confirmed the Riverdale team already filmed some scenes. Though they were unable to turn prom into the fourth season finale because a few major character moments still needed to be completed. Aguirre-Sacasa said:
We had shot almost two-thirds of episode 20, which was going to be our prom episode. We actually had shot the prom, where a lot of very dramatic things happen. But we still hadn’t shot some big character moments between Archie [KJ Apa] and Veronica [Camila Mendes] and Betty [Lili Reinhart] and Jughead [Cole Sprouse]. So we kind of just couldn’t do that.
Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa shares ‘Riverdale’ Season 5 premiere sneak peek pic on Instagram
While the Riverdale team still needs to film scenes of the Core Four, Aguirre-Sacasa recently teased Cheryl and Toni’s prom night on Instagram. The showrunner also confirmed the prom episode will be the Riverdale Season 5 premiere.
“Couldn’t resist a sneak peek at Prom Night (our first episode back) with these two beautiful ladies,” Aguirre Sacasa wrote in the caption. “Rest assured, ALL the queens will [be] reigning SUPREMELY next season!”
In the pic, Choni appears to be all smiles. But even so, this is prom and there’s bound to be some drama. Then when speaking with Entertainment Tonight in May, Aguirre-Sacasa compared Toni and Cheryl’s prom arc to Romeo and Juliet.
“Cheryl finds out that Toni’s family has some pretty strong opinions about Toni dating Cheryl,” he said. “We find out that Toni’s family hasn’t even known that Toni has been dating Cheryl. So they’ve got some star-crossed drama coming up soon. too.”
When will ‘Riverdale’ Season 5 return to The CW?
For now, fans must wait for The CW to announce an exact premiere date for Riverdale Season 5. But even so, the network has already announced the teen drama will return with new episodes starting in January 2021.
Meanwhile, it seems the cast and crew will begin production soon.
“I have to quarantine for two weeks, but then we are starting our season 5,” Reinhart said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in August 2020. “When we go back, we have to finish three days of one episode that we were filming in March.”
While the Riverdale team gears up to finish the season 5 premiere, fans are preparing to say goodbye to the end of an era. The new season will highlight a significant time jump following the prom and graduation episodes. So stay tuned. There’s a lot of drama on the horizon.
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