Riverdale is ending. The dark teen series’ seventh season will premiere in 2023 and will cap off the show.
“I’m a big believer in giving series that have long runs an appropriate sendoff,” CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz said Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “We want to make sure it goes out the right way.”
Riverdale, a drama featuring a darker depiction of classic characters from the Archie comic books, premiered in 2017 on the CW. It’s since become a pop culture phenomenon, appearing in Saturday Night Live sketches and lifting actors like Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes to social media stardom.
The network renewed Riverdale for a seventh season in March. Its sixth season is currently underway.
Cast members have previously hinted that the end of the show was nigh. Reinhart, who portrays Betty Cooper in the show said in a 2021 Instagram Live that season 7 would probably be the last. “But you didn’t hear it from me,” she said jokingly. Cole Sprouse, who plays Jughead Jones, said in a 2022 GQ story that most Riverdale actors were ready to wrap up the show “with a bow” and move on with their lives.
While the Riverdale announcement isn’t very abrupt, The CW did cancel several shows this month and last, including Batwoman, Legends of Tomorrow, Charmed, Dynasty, Legacies and Roswell, New Mexico.
