Riverdale Boss Shares Steamy Photo Of Archie As Production Begins On Season 5

Riverdale KJ Kapa Archie Andrews The CW
(Image credit: The CW)

Riverdale has taken tremendous strides in restarting production, as work on Season 5 is finally underway. To kick things off on a high note, Riverdale's Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has shared a (literally) steamy photo of none other than Archie Andrews himself (KJ Apa). And it's sure to give fans something to look forward to.

Riverdale’s busy boss took to Instagram to share the first scene to get filmed for Season 5 and, as Aguirre-Sacasa points out, certain things never change. COVID-19 will not keep Archie from relaxing, and this seems to be going over well with fans. The showrunner's pic of Archie blowing off some steam has garnered over 160,000 likes. Check it out:

A photo posted by on

Someone clearly kept their at-home workouts in full swing despite the global pandemic. It would seem that KJ Apa and Lucifer’s Tom Ellis were of the same mind when it came to staying fit during the quarantine. That's certainly one way to kick off Riverdale beginning work on Season 5, and you have to hand it to Apa. Staying in shape in quarantine was arguably no small feat.

Riverdale was one of the many shows that was impacted by the industry-wide shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. While Riverdale did not sign off with its originally-planned finale, the teen drama still managed to serve up a brutal cliffhanger to keep fans in suspense. Wait, so with everything going on, has Archie decided to head to the steam room before prom?

High school’s signature event will kick off Riverdale’s Season 5 return. A development that Lili Reinhart spoke about when discussing her upcoming reunion with Betty’s prom dress. But despite the climactic way that Riverdale left off, Archie's steam room time will take precedence. Priorities, people.

Thankfully, filming on one of your favorite CW teen dramas is getting underway sooner than expected. Despite the late start date, Riverdale and lots of its fellow CW series (The Flash, Legacies etc.) will be back with their new seasons in January 2021. While that date once seemed far away, it appears to be coming faster than I could have anticipated.

Speaking of time, Riverdale is still set to jump through a lot of it courtesy of the One Tree Hill-approved maneuver of skipping the college years. Is that Chad Michael Murray rubbing off following his appearance on the show? But unlike One Tree Hill’s Season 5 time-jump, which kicked off the season, Riverdale will not immediately dive into the time jump when its fifth season premieres.

It will instead pick up where things left off last season. The plan is for Riverdale to resume after that deadly cliffhanger, go the course for three episodes and then jump forward. That was the plan, according to Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. So Archie better get in as much personal time in the steam room as he can before certain aspects of his life really start to heat up.

To catch up with Archie’s previously intense moments, you can currently stream (not steam) past seasons of Riverdale on Netflix alongside lots of new 2020 content. Riverdale Season 5 will arrive after this fall’s premieres in January 2021 on The CW.

Britt Lawrence

Like a contented Hallmark movie character, Britt happily lives in the same city she grew up in. Along with movies and television, she is passionate about competitive figure skating. She has been writing about entertainment for 5 years, and as you may suspect, still finds it as entertaining to do as when she began.