Riverdale season 4 is focusing on high school and senior year

Riverdale season 4 is going back to its high school roots and focusing on senior year for the Core Four and other main characters.

Riverdale season 4 was the talk of San Diego Comic-Con on the con’s final day. Creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Madelaine Petsch, Camila Mendes and Cole Sprouse shared a ton of new information about the season during the panel from Hall H and with press.

One of the big topics of discussion among the cast and creator Aguirre-Sacasa at SDCC was season 4 really diving back into the high school setting and senior year for the main characters.

After two years, basically, of dealing with serial killers and more, Riverdale season 4 will focus on senior year for Archie, Betty, Jughead, Veronica, Cheryl and the rest of those characters, according to Aguirre-Sacasa.

“It’s fun that the overall theme, I think, is a senior year. The kids are seniors this year,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “We so rarely focus on high school stuff because they’re usually running speakeasies or tracking down serial killers or being kidnapped by cults or going into juvenile detention center. So it’s like this is it. After this year, they’re not going to be high school students. So we’re like, we better get in as much school stuff as we can.”

This is a super smart way to play this season. After the first season was largely a high school show with one central mystery, the show went bigger and bolder in season 2 and 3. I don’t think the show lost its way or anything, but it makes sense to take a step back from the murder and truly dive into the high school storylines. As Aguirre-Sacasa mentioned, this is the last time they will be able to do that.

Will this be the final season of Riverdale as we know it and love it? It’s starting to look like it. Although Aguirre-Sacasa didn’t say it directly, what Riverdale season 4 is really focusing on is that change between senior year and the rest of these character’s lives. High school friends don’t always stay friends forever. People move, change and grow, and it sounds like that’s the cornerstone this season. Undoubtedly, that will change the show, and that will probably be sad for some fans, as well as these characters.

Aquirre-Sacasa did address how this season feels different to him than previous seasons.

“So the idea that this group of people who’ve been together for four years, some longer than that, that this could be the last their last first day of school, their last prom, their last football game, I think adds a real melancholy and bittersweet feeling, which I think is the big theme of the season,” he added.

I really like that dynamic for this season. It’s less about how the town is shaping these young characters and more about how their decisions will impact their present and future. Who will they take to prom? Which colleges will they go to? Will they even go to college? Will they keep their romantic relationships? Will they sacrifice to stay together?

To some extent, everyone goes through that as high school comes to an end, and every viewer can connect with those choices. It will be very interesting to see how it all plays out.

It sounds like those changes have already started happening. At SDCC, we learned Jughead will be attending a prestigious Prep school instead of Riverdale High for senior year. And, he’ll be staying there for the week and only returning to Riverdale on the weekends, according to Cole Sprouse.

See, the secure footing these characters had at the end of season 3 and junior year is already shifting, and that’s exciting for those who like the drama.

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Based on everything I heard at SDCC, I’m so excited for season 4. It’s important to allow these characters to take a little bit of a break from the gloom and doom of their past and let those characters experience high school, especially after everything they have been through.

At SDCC, Reinhart, who stars as Betty in the series, touched on what senior year means to Betty and how it will help the character move on a little bit from her father’s death and everything else that’s happened to her.

“I think it’s sort of a good distraction and kind of refreshing to focus on senior year after all that’s happened. Clearly a lot. A lot has changed in Betty’s life,” Reinhart said. “I think her life has been flipped upside down a little bit. And, the idea that she can kind of sink her teeth into senior year is probably really good for her. I think it’s also very sentimental because she’s with her best friends, and it’s their last year to kind of do all this stuff together before things might change. So I think she’s trying to be in a good place.”

The show was awesome in season 2 and 3, but there’s something to be said about the show getting back to its roots and allowing these characters to heal. At some point, the writers have to stop torturing the characters so much and give them a little room to change and grow. Hopefully, that happens in season 4. And, I think it will.

Riverdale season 4 premieres on The CW on Wednesday, Oct. 9. New episodes will be added to Netflix (Non-US) the day after they air on The CW. The full season will be added to Netflix in the spring of 2020.