Riverdale Creator Reveals The Finale's 'Ambitious' Plans Fans Didn't Get To See
For the bulk of its primetime tenure, "Riverdale" regularly ranked among the most inventive television series on the air. Quite frankly, we may not see a show that — for better or for worse — keeps itself so completely open to various narrative possibilities in our lifetime. And yes, "Riverdale" creatives closed the series out with a fittingly wild final run of episodes that found the series' gang stuck in an alternate 1950s timeline after a Season 6 time leap.
That twist seemed even more appropriate given that the comic book series that inspired The CW hit was steeped in the cultural vibes of the 1940s and 1950s. But even as ingenious as the show's final season trip to the '50s was, it seems the "Riverdale" creative team had initially charted a very different path — one that would've found Archie Andrews and his pals jumping through every decade that followed.
Series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa confirmed the fact during a recent chat with TV Line, telling the outlet that the initial pitch for the final season marked just the first 13 episodes to be set in the '50s, with the time-jumps beginning thereafter. "So Episode 14 would be set in the '60s," he said. "Episode 15 would be set in the '70s, and then the '80s, the '90s ... kind of working through to the present day." Such an arc would've been ambitious even by "Riverdale" standards, and it's pretty hard to believe the creative team actually abandoned it.
Aguire-Sacasa admits Riverdal sticking to the '50s probably worked out for the best
As joyous as it would've been to see the "Riverdale" crew working their way through the fashion and cultural complexities of the '60s, '70s, '80s, and beyond, it simply wasn't meant to be. As Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told TV Line, that was because the show didn't have the budget to support what surely would've been a pricey undertaking from a production standpoint. He also noted the creative team had already used the time travel device to stunning effect in Season 6.
More importantly, the "Riverdale" creator said that when the creative team began mapping out the time-jumping final season, "it just didn't feel right" to leave the 1950s, in part because everyone was having a blast telling stories set in that era. "The writers and the cast and the crew, we were having such a fun time in the '50s," Aguirre-Sacasa said. "We thought we would just continue telling the domestic, personal, romantic coming-of-age stories that we tell, and then move everyone back at the end."
But Archie and company never exactly leave the '50s in the final season, though an elderly Betty Cooper does relive the fateful last day of high school from her deathbed in the series finale. In a twist befitting a series where literally anything and everything was possible, she's returned to her '50s self when she goes to meet her friends in the great Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe in the sky. And, frankly, it's hard to imagine a more fitting finale than the gang toasting with a round of shakes.