‘Riverdale’ Showrunner Reveals Jughead’s Mum and Sister Arrive for Season 3

Kim Taylor-Foster
TV Comic-Con
TV Comic-Con Riverdale The CW

Riverdale Season 3 premieres on October 10 when answers to all the questions left hanging over Season 2 will (hopefully) be answered. And more. With fan theories speculating that zombies may enter the show in Season 3, and news that a cult is about to tighten its grip on the town, the New York Comic-Con panel gave fans even more reason to get excited. A tantalising, exclusive glimpse at what Season 3 holds, plus some cryptic/revealing quotes from the cast, including KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Luke Perry and Madchen Amick, alongside showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacassa, promise plenty of thrills for the upcoming season. Here’s what we gleaned about Season 3 from the Riverdale panel at New York Comic-Con.

It Has a Mystery Plot Inspired By True Detective 

Lili Reinhart: “There’s quite a few [mysteries] and Betty is always right in the middle of them, isn’t she? It’s good. It keeps it fun for me, and somewhat traumatizing — especially for Betty. I would describe the main mystery in the first half of the season as an epidemic in Riverdale. It involves everyone in the town, and it’s kind of like it’s a crisis.”

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: “One thing we missed a little bit in Season 2 was Betty and Jughead as investigators working together to solve a mystery. I loved the first season of True Detective – which had a weird, occult murder mystery — so we thought it would be fun to see our teen detectives in a True Detective-type plot. So it’s a pretty dark, very twisted, and very twisty, mystery.”

There’s a New Villain to Rival the Black Hood

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Hiram Lodge (left) is full-on villain in Season 3, but there's another antagonist to contend with.

Aguirre-Sacasa: “[Hiram] is definitely now a full-on villain but in the same way that there was the Black Hood in Season 2, there’s this being called the Gargoyle King who is tormenting Riverdale, especially the kids.”

A Comic-Book Favourite Shows Up

Aguirre-Sacasa: “We always have boxes and boxes of Double Digest in the writers’ room. There’s tons of Easter Eggs [in Season 3]. There is a character from the comics called Evelyn Evernever who shows up in Episode 2 and is very mysterious and is causing trouble for Betty.”

Varchie is On the Rocks

KJ Apa on how Veronica and Archie’s relationship will play out this season: “I don’t think it’s looking too good for old Varchie this season. I think their relationship will definitely be put to the test this season, for sure.”

Reinhart: “For Bughead, so far so good.”

Alice’s Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Madchen Amick on Alice’s relationship status: “It’s quite hot and steamy. She’s juggling a couple of relationships. I won’t get too much into the other one but there’s someone who runs the Farm who’s very charismatic, so she gets lured into that world. So we’ll eventually get to see him. Can we name him? Edgar Evernever, Evelyn’s father. So there’s that happening on one side. And there’s some good Falice stuff happening.”

Jughead’s Mum and Sister Arrive in Episode 8

Aguirre-Sacasa: “Right now, we are shooting Episode 8 and we’re all really excited, we’re welcoming Gladys and Jellybean Jones. We found a wonderful young actor named Trinity Likins who’s playing Jellybean but we’re really especially excited to announce that Ms Gina Gershon is playing Gladys.”

A Flashback Episode is Directly Influenced By Twin Peaks

Reinhart on getting into character as Alice for a flashback episode in which she plays Betty’s own mum: “The make-up and hair process helped a lot. I have very curly long hair, I’m thinking like Twin Peaks vibes. I do my own make-up on the show this season so I was looking at a lot of pictures of Madchen when she was  in Twin Peaks and kind of darkening the eyebrows and using the lip liner. It was really fun. It was like as soon as I had the look going, it really came naturally and obviously, the wardrobe was so different from Betty. It was super cool. When that episode was over, I was sad because I missed playing young Alice — and young Fred [for KJ Apa] and young Hermione for Cami [Mendes]. It was really fun and I think the episode will be a fan favourite.”

Amick: “It was written so well because you got to really learn the history of the parents.”

Reinhart: “It airs on Halloween right?”

Aguirre-Sacasa: “Yeah, it’s Epsiode 4.”

Archie Will Be Fighting For His Life This Season

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Archie was arrested at the end of Season 2.

Aguirre-Sacasa following the revelation KJ Apa has been doing boxing training for Season 3: “Archie is going to find himself in a situation where he is fighting for his life. KJ loves doing all the action stuff.”

Apa: “I would call it not boxing, but I’d call it fighting.”

Aguirre-Sacasa: “Brawling.”

FP Wants His Serpent King Crown Back

Aguirre-Sacasa: “I think FP is a little bit adrift now he’s that he’s not king of the serpents. I think Gladys is going to shake that up a little bit. One thing this season is that the parents are caught up in their own mystery as well. We have a lot of scenes where all the parents are in it together and that’s really fun. I think around Episode 8 or 9 we start seeing FP bristling at the fact he’s not the Serpent King and wanting to get back in the game again.”

Riverdale Season 3 premieres in the US on October 10 and in the UK on October 11.

Kim Taylor-Foster
Kim Taylor-Foster is Entertainment Editor for Fandom in the UK. She was raised on an unsteady diet of video nasties and violent action flicks.