Surprising as Archie Andrews’ modern day return to pop cultural relevance might have been to some Western viewers following Riverdale’s premiere on the CW back in 2017, the same likely wasn’t true for those living in India where Archie and his friends have remained much more relevant and popular.
Lily-white as the Archie brand generally remains, the next big project adapted from the Archie Comics classics is taking a different route. Variety reports that Ghost Stories director Zoya Akhtar has signed on to helm The Archies, a new live-action musical produced by Netflix, Tiger Baby, and Graphic India. It’s described as “a coming-of-age, live action musical set in 1960s India based on the teenagers of Riverdale.”
In a statement about the new movie, which doesn’t seem like it will have any canonical Riverdale connection, Aktar expressed how she grew up loving Archie and his friends, and her desire for the film the speak to audiences who hold these characters in a special place within their hearts.
“The characters are iconic and globally loved, which is also why I am a little nervous,” Aktar said. “I have to make sure the film stokes the nostalgia of a generation that grew up on the comic and yet resonates with the young adults today.”
While Netflix has yet to announce any specific details about The Archies, both its title and it being a musical suggest that it might borrow from Alex Segura, Matthew Rosenberg, and Joe Eisma’s The Archies, a 2017 series in which Archie and the gang form a band, as groups do. Currently, there is no word on when The Archies will begin production, or when Netflix will debut the film.