Is Choni coming back on Riverdale? On April 9, Her Campus at UCLA had the opportunity to interview the cast of Riverdale on the PaleyFest red carpet and attend an exclusive screening and panel at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Read on for our top highlights!
To start off the event, the main cast members and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa walked the carpet to answer questions. When we asked what the most rewarding part was of being in Riverdale, K.J. Apa, who plays Archie Andrews, stated that he was honored to be “bringing these iconic characters to the flesh..which is a huge responsibility.”
The Archie Comics that the show is based on has been around for over 80 years, with countless books to draw inspiration from. Aguirre-Sacasa noted that it’s a “balancing act” to be both true to the source material and the comics’ fans and still keep the show unique and interesting. “There are certain things we’ll always be exploring with the characters,” he said. “Cheryl will always be, on some level, wrestling with the death of her brother….But you do want to push into different storylines so they’re not doing the same thing…you intuit your way through it.”
Both K.J. Apa and Camila Mendes (Veronica Lodge) expressed wanting their characters to be able to find some sense of normalcy after the intense twists and turns of season 6 so far. Apa said, “I’d love to see him settle down…maybe get married, have a family.” Mendes echoed similar sentiments: “I just want to see them all be happy in the end….all the ships to land and click and everyone to have babies and live happily ever after.” Hopefully, the recently-confirmed season 7 will bring the Riverdale characters at least a little more peace and stability!
Next, we moved into a panel discussion moderated by Dave Nemetz of TV Line. Also present were Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart, Madelaine Petsch, Mädchen Amick, Vanessa Morgan, Erinn Westbrook, and executive producer Sarah Schechter.
One of the main topics of conversation during the panel was the countless number of popular ships among fans. Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper, said, “Archie’s relationship with Veronica and Betty’s relationship with Jughead — they’re all beautiful in their own little ways, but I think Betty and Archie have a home in each other.”
Mendes also noted that “all the characters on Riverdale are very mature. They’re always like, ‘No, I just want you to be happy! If it’s with my ex, that’s cool!’” Sprouse (Jughead Jones) joked that “Jughead finds [Archie and Betty] very erotic.”
The panel closed out with a few audience questions, which were nearly all about Choni, the ship between Madelaine Petsch’s Cheryl Blossom and Vanessa Morgan’s Toni Topaz. Petsch claimed that she is the “captain of that ship,” but that only Aguirre-Sacasa could make any promises about the return of the pairing.
If you’re interested in seeing the future of Riverdale’s relationships, catch up with the show on The CW or streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu. Thank you PaleyFest for having us!