There was one glaring, curious omission on Wednesday night’s Season 3 finale of Riverdale: any mention whatsoever of Archie dad Fred Andrews, played by the late Luke Perry. The absence didn’t go unnoticed across social media. In response, showrunner and creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa offered his explanation to The Hollywood Reporter.
His reason? They didn’t want to rush an explanation. Instead, they wanted to get it just right.
“It was just devastating,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “And we wanted to honor Luke, and figure out the best way to handle the character of Fred Andrews in the show. So we sort of said, ‘You know what? Let’s not squeeze, let’s not rush to squeeze something into the finale, or into the last couple of episodes, let’s really think about it, and let’s tell that story at the beginning of season four.’”
“Luke was one of the hearts of the show — Luke and KJ, their relationship, and as crazy as things got, we always turned back to them,” he added. “That was so wonderful to have, and so that was part of our thinking too. We wanted to take the time to understand how the show will change [without Fred], and how we could best address that.”
Aguirre-Sacasa also noted that Molly Ringwald, who plays Archie’s mom Mary, agreed to stay on for a few additional episodes so that our hero would have some parental guidance.
Perry passed away in early March following a massive stroke that put him in a coma. The actor’s sudden death caused shock across the industry, with many issuing moving tributes to someone who was by all accounts a wonderful person.
The final Riverdale episode that featured Perry aired back in late April. His final screen appearance will be in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is about to premiere at the just-begun Cannes Film Festival.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
