After axing a massive slate of shows from its network, the CW turned its sights on another long-running, recognisable show: Riverdale. Deadline has revealed that this seventh season will be the last for the teen drama series, which began as a steamy, dark soap opera spin on the Archie comics, but has increasingly become more and more absurd, even diving into the science fiction and fantasy genres, as the show has continued.
Even the actors, it seems, were ready to move on from Riverdale. In a quote from an interview with GQ, Cole Sprouse, who has played Jughead for the entirety of the show, said that the cast is ready to move on. Willa Bennet writes, “after six seasons of increasingly complicated storylines and hijinks, [Sprouse] says most of the actors are ready to ‘wrap it up with a bow,’ and move on with their lives.”
Given that the show has gone from relatively the grounded drama of season one, where the teenage Archie was secretly sleeping with his high school music teacher and his classmate Jason Blossom had been murdered, to this seventh season, which not only ventured into a parallel universe but has currently given the main cast superpowers (and brought the Holy Grail to the small town of Riverdale!), it certainly seems reasonable that Sprouse, KJ Apa, and the rest of the crew might just be ready to move on to something less… ridiculous.
Riverdale is only the newest series that the CW has announced will be ending. Series with a cult-like following like Charmed and Roswell aren’t going forward, as well as comic book adaptations like Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Naomi have all been struck from the production schedule. Most of these cancellations have been chalked up to mergers and money, rather than any specific story or contract.
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