Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Pretty Little Liars) will reunite with series producer Greg Berlanti (Doom Patrol) to helm the upcoming Afterlife with Archie series, as per The Hollywood Reporter. The news arrives around nine months after Disney+ first ordered Warner Bros. TV to produce an adaptation of the critically acclaimed comic book, which traps Archie, Betty, Veronica, and other Archie Comics classics in a bloody battle for survival amidst a sudden zombie apocalypse.
“We are so happy to reunite with Roberto on this exciting series that takes us back into the Riverdale world that we so love,” Berlanti told The Hollywood Reporter in a joint statement with co-producer Sarah Schechter (Supergirl), “and we are thankful to Disney+ and WBTV for giving us the opportunity to revisit some of our favorite characters in a unique and thrilling way. A special thank you to Jon Goldwater for letting us continue to play within the beloved Archie universe and trusting us to bring Archie’s various stories to life.”
In addition to being the series developer for Riverdale and its spin-off Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Aguirre-Sacasa wrote the original 2013 comic run of Afterlife With Archie along with artist Francesco Francavilla. The comic breaks from the main Archie Comics continuity after a convoluted series of events leads to Riverdale’s resident slacker Jughead Jones becoming an unwitting Patient Zero for a supernatural plague that spreads throughout the town and soon, beyond. The series has been on indefinite hiatus since 2016 — at least it was, until Aguirre-Sacasa announced a resurrection of the comic along with its adaptation last October (via Bleeding Cool).
While Afterlife With Archie quickly became a massive financial success, Aguirre-Sacasa’s most famous interpretation of Archie and his friends is undoubtedly Riverdale. The first season of the CW drama drew audiences into a murder mystery set within a brooding and atmospheric reinvention of the Archie Comics mythos — “first” being the operative word here. With each renewal, Riverdale increasingly took root in absurdist territory; superheroes, time travel, and a cult based on an in-universe Dungeons and Dragons knock-off were just some of the plot lines later seasons explored, to mounting bewilderment — and intense fascination — from fans. The Guardian once lovingly described the show as a “sprawling soap opera with a liberated relationship to reality” and “the finest specimen of its genre in its era.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Afterlife With Archie will stream on Disney+ around Halloween of next year. And if its creators’ previous works are anything to go by, audiences can expect a take on the Archie universe that is anything but normal.