Riverdale Season 5 Begins Production

After COVID-19 cut Riverdale season 4 short, the show has now officially begun work on its fifth season in Vancouver.

Riverdale Season 5 Production
Photo: Jack Rowand | The CW

And just like that, the world is one step closer to having Riverdale back. Series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa posted a photo to Instagram Sunday night revealing that filming was set to get underway on Monday, Sept. 14. Aguirre-Sacasa wrote:

β€œAfter fourteen days of quarantining πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ and months of prep, #Riverdale Season 5 starts shooting tomorrow. Spent the night in the bubble, reminiscing with these lovely people and celebrating @lilireinhart 24th birthday πŸŽ‚ How time flies. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the gang this week. Here we go….”

Deadline had previously reported that Riverdale would begin filming on Sept. 14 and now that report has officially come to pass – Riverdale is in production once again, finally. The show previously had to cut production on season 4 short in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. That season concluded with episode 19, β€œKilling Mr. Honey,” which was never intended to serve as a finale.

Production on season 5 will have to follow the guidelines set forth by the provincial and national governments of British Columbia and Canada. According to the guidelines, the stars must self-isolate for two weeks before filming, cast and crew must socially distance, and PPE must be worn. Canada has experienced over 137,000 total cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began but made news two days ago by reporting no deaths in a 24-hour period since March. 

Most of The CW and Warner Bros. TV’s series film in Vancouver. While Riverdale is the first to make it back to production, the studio anticipates having almost 20 shows back in production by month’s end. 

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In addition to being the first CW show back from the COVID production pause, Riverdale now stands alone as the only remaining show in Aguirre-Sacasa and Greg Berlanti’s TV Archie-Verse. Spooky spinoff Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was canceled at Netflix after three seasons (though one more batch of episodes remains) while Katy Keene got the boot at The CW.Β 

Riverdale stars KJ Apa, Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Casey Cott, and Madelaine Petsch and is based on characters and concepts from the Archie Comics universe. Season 4 of the show dealt with the tragic loss of star Luke Perry and featured an episode paying homage to Hedwig and the Angry Inch. There is no word yet on when Riverdale season 5 will premiere or what musical it intends to honor this time around.