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Archie Comics Planning New Live-Action Series & Animated TV Shows
It seems Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina are just the beginning of Archie Comics on the small screen, now that publisher Jon Goldwater has confirmed plans for even more TV shows. In an example of things coming full circle, the Archie Comics are getting fresh creatives that will take the property in a new direction that hews closer to its pulpy counterpart Riverdale on The CW. The publisher further intends to mix things up with a pair of animated series; one that's far lighter in tone than Riverdale and the other a horror-flavored spinoff centered on Josie McCoy (of The Pussycats fame).
In truth, Archie Comics has been incorporating horror and/or thriller sub-genres into the mix ever since Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa began his run as Chief Creative Officer. Starting with his Afterlife with Archie comics (a spinoff that finds The Town With Pep in the midst of a zombie apocalypse), Aguirre-Sacasa has pushed the property into fresh, exciting, and sometimes bewildering places, most recently with a season-long serial killer storyline on Riverdale. Netflix's upcoming Chilling Adventures of Sabrina TV show will go even further by bringing the supernatural into the Archie television universe, even now that Riverdale is threatening to send Archie Andrews to jail next season.
In addition to the aforementioned cartoon series, Goldwater revealed in a NYT article (h/t CBR) that comparatively obscure Archie Comics series Sam Hill, Private Eye is being developed as a live-action TV show. The detective character was inspired by hard-boiled noir stories in the 1940s and '50s and saw his comics cancelled after just seven issues in 1952. However, seeing as Riverdale has never been a show afraid to dip its toe (nay, its entire leg) into noir with its stories about drug-dealing biker gangs, murderous fathers, and other things hidden by The Town With Pep's (in theory) sunny facade, it was perhaps only a matter of time before the show got a full-blown noir spinoff.
There's no word yet where these developing shows might land, but the animated Josie series in particular sounds like a good match for CW Seed. The CW's online streaming arm features cartoon spinoffs for a number of popular side characters from its live-action Arrowverse, including the demonologist-turned time traveler John Constantine and Earth-X based superhero The Ray. It's worth noting that Chilling Adventures was originally set up at The CW before it got a two-season order from Netflix, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that something similar with happen with one or more of these new shows.
The Josie animated series also sounds promising because it should give the character more time to shine in the spotlight than she normally gets while on Riverdale. Similarly, the "lighter" Archie cartoon series might provide a nice change of pace from its moodier counterparts, whereas the Sam Hill spinoff could be interesting simply because it comes with much more creative freedom, given the character's lesser-known nature. Until then, everyone will have to wait and see which of these TV shows (if any of them) actually see the light of day.
Riverdale season 3 premieres Wednesday, October 10 on The CW this fall.
