Coming to an end. After seven seasons on The CW, Riverdale will be wrapping up its story — and the cast has plenty to say about heading to the finish line.
Before the show was renewed for its final season, Cole Sprouse teased that he was ready to move on to other opportunities. “I’m not a creative force behind [Riverdale]. I actually have no creative control,” he told GQ in March 2022. “We show up, receive the scripts often the day of, and we’re asked to shoot.”
The former child star also noted that his fellow cast members were ready to “wrap it up with a bow.”
Later that year, The CW’s CEO Mark Pedowitz confirmed that Riverdale would be concluding after its seventh season. “I am a big believer in attempting to give series that have had long runs an appropriate sendoff,” he said during a call with reporters in May 2022. “We had a long conversation with [executive producer] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] yesterday, who is thrilled by this news, and we will treat the show in the manner it deserves. We want to make sure it goes out the right way.”
He added: “I think they, too, felt that seven years is the right amount. As a fan myself, I do want to do what is right for the show.”
That same month, KJ Apa broke his silence about the major transition in his career. “I try not to think about it, because the more I think about it, the more real it becomes,” the I Still Believe star, who has been on Riverdale since its 2017 debut, told TV Line. “I think a lot of us saw it coming, season 7 most probably being the final season. So it didn’t come as too much of a surprise to me.”
Apa joked that there was one aspect of playing Archie Andrews that he wouldn’t mind leaving behind, adding, “I can’t say I’d miss dying my hair every week. I’m looking forward to being myself again, but I promise you guys, this last season, we are going to end it with a bang, and we can’t wait to share it with you.”
His costar and onscreen love interest Lili Reinhart later offered a glimpse at how the cast would be spending their time before season 7 production kicks off. “We spend so much time together during our filming season, that when it is our hiatus, we’re all like, ‘Bye.’ And we do keep in contact with each other for sure,” she detailed to Entertainment Tonight in August 2022. “I talk to Cami and Mads and Vanessa all the time and Mädchen, but everyone’s busy, everyone’s doing their things, and we know we’re coming back to each other, so, [our cast group chat is] not weepy yet.”
The Ohio native, who has played Betty Cooper since season 1, opened up about what ending she wants for her character.
“I would obviously like to see a happy ending for Betty, knowing that she will be OK — an optimistic, lighthearted note,” she continued. “I don’t know who she’s gonna end up with or where, how, why, when — I know nothing about the final season — but I just hope that she’s happy, and you have an idea that things are gonna settle down for her in the best way.”
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Scroll down for everything the cast has said about Riverdale‘s final chapter:
