It’s the end of a beautiful, bonkers era. The CW announced that Riverdale is coming to an end with season seven, set to air in 2023. For six seasons now we’ve watched Archie Andrews and his crew solve several murders, lead gangs, run speakeasies, and somehow graduate high school. But we don’t have to say goodbye to Archie, Veronica, Betty, Jughead, Kevin, Cheryl, Toni, and the rest just yet. We’re in for one last rodeo. And if there’s one thing we can predict it’s that season seven will be pure chaos.
It’s not too surprising the show is gearing up to take its final bow. Seven seasons is an excellent run. And it’s even more impressive for a show that often felt purely (and purposely) comprised of “jumping the shark” moments. The CW renewed the series for season seven back in March 2022 alongside a bulk of the network’s roster but confirmed the show’s ending when unveiling its fall 2022 schedule. (Riverdale will return as a midseason show.)
The darker, sexier take on the iconic Archie Comics characters first debuted in 2017. And it made quite a splash from the get-go, with its release on Netflix catapulting it into a global sensation. While the first several seasons followed the Archie characters through their teen years, the show jumped ahead several years during season five, catching up with the now-adult crew as they returned to their hometown. The series never shied away from the supernatural and more recently has dabbled in the superhero arena, with several of the main characters gaining superpowers.
I know I will miss regaling non-watchers with little snippets of Riverdale residents’ messy adventures. After all, there’s no easy way to say, “In season three, Archie was on the run after breaking out of prison and then a bear mauled him but he returned home just in time to take the SATs” with a straight face.
We still don’t know specifics about Riverdale‘s final season. However, The CW president Mark Pedowitz said, per Variety where we first saw the news, the network plans to give the series “an appropriate send-off.” So there’s plenty to look forward to when Riverdale returns in 2023.