Archie Comics, featuring Archie Andrews and his entourage are soon going to make their way to our TV screens. After Archie Comics received a contemporary makeover thanks to Mark Waid and Fiona Staples, the popular comic series appears set for its own TV show on Fox. If sources are to be believed, Greg Berlanti, the man behind TV shows like Arrow and The Flash, is developing a new drama for Fox based on the adventures of Archie and his gang in the small fictional town of Riverdale.
Warner Bros TV has agreed to produce Riverdale together with the studio-based Berlanti Productions. Taking place in the present day, Riverdale promises to be a modern live-action drama, unlike the many animated renditions that have sought to bring Archie onto our TV screens in the past, usually with little or no success.
It is also worth noting that the show will be written by Archie Comics’s Chief Creative Officer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (who also writes “Afterlife With Archie” and “Sabrina”), promising a surrealist bend to an otherwise coming-of-age teen drama series.
There are varying ideas on what Aguirre-Sacasa’s involvement could be mean for the new Archie Comics show.
“Set in the present, the series offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and their friends, exploring the surreality of small-town life — the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome façade.”
Aguirre-Sacasa, who is also a successful playwright and screenwriter, has an extensive background in coming-of-age teen dramas with Glee and Looking already in his CV, while Berlanti is a TV veteran, having earlier produced the immensely popular Dawson’s Creek and Jack & Bobby, in addition to his impressive recent productions.
According to the official Archie Comics press release, Archie Comics Publisher and Co-CEO Jon Goldwater spoke of the partnership between Aguirre-Sacasa and Berlanti in glowing terms.
