There’s no town like Riverdale, where cult leaders, moth men, serial killers and maple syrup wars are regular occurrences.
At least the show’s core four — Betty (Lili Reinhart), Veronica (Camila Mendes), Archie (KJ Apa) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) — don’t have to deal with high school on top of all that anymore. In season 5, the show jumped forward in time seven years, with the Riverdale High graduates having gone their separate ways. Jughead moved to New York City, Betty went to the FBI Academy in Virginia, Veronica married Chad (Chris Mason) and Archie went off to war. When the town of Riverdale ran into even more problems than usual, they didn’t hesitate to return to save it.
Season 6 will almost certainly continue with the time jump, but it’s hard to guess what else might happen as it starts so soon after season 5. Because of coronavirus-related production delays, season 5 aired in two parts, with the second part set to wrap up just weeks before season 6 begins.
“I will say that we’re definitely picking up on a lot of the emotional relationship stories in season 6,” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Decider in August 2021. “So, a lot of the friendships and relationships and redefinition of relationships that we get to at the end of season 5 [will] continue into season 6.”
That’s a relatively vague statement, but it does hint at the possibility of a continued friendship between Betty and Tabitha Tate (Erinn Westbrook), who’s been helping Betty as she searches for her missing sister, Polly (Tiera Skovbye).
“We didn’t want to tell a traditional love triangle where Betty and Tabitha were sort of wary or jealous of each other,” Aguirre-Sacasa explained. “We felt like them being together as friends and trying to find this person that they both care about would be really, really cool. And I’m really happy to say that we continue that friendship into subsequent episodes.”
After season 5 wrapped, Aguirre-Sacasa teased the next season with a long series of very interesting emojis, including an alien, a clown, a tornado and a tidal wave.
“Really excited about our next batch of episodes,” he wrote via Instagram in June 2021. “They’re some of the best we’ve done. And after that, a break. And after that…
.”
The only solution is to make like Betty and Jughead and start sleuthing. Keep scrolling to find out everything we know about Riverdale season 6: