Go Behind the Scenes of ‘Riverdale’ Season 3 (PHOTOS)
Charles Melton is a huge fan of Reggie Mantle’s beloved 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454. “Reggie’s car means everything to him,” Melton says of the football player’s ride, which he lost in Season 3 to Gladys Jones (Gina Gershon) before Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) bought it back for him. And yep, producers let Melton behind the wheel! “The power behind it is exhilarating,” he says.
In “The Midnight Club,” the cast (including Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Ashleigh Murray, and Lili Reinhart) played their onscreen parents as teens addicted to the fantasy Gryphons and Gargoyles. The best part? The style. “We looked at the cards the characters picked and the spooky folk tales surrounding the game for inspiration,” says costume designer Rebekka Sorensen-Kjelstrup.
FP Jones (Skeet Ulrich, right, with director of photography Ron Richard) lays down the law outside Pop’s. Rising from the Southside Serpents to Riverdale sheriff “has been a sobering experience for FP,” Ulrich says. But, he adds, “FP can handle as much as they throw his way — and then some!”
In the Season 3 opener, all Archie (KJ Apa) wanted was one more normal weekend before accepting a plea deal to serve time in juvie for a crime he didn’t commit. Cue Sweetwater River (actually the Alouette River near the show’s Vancouver set). “It was freezing!” admits Apa. But the star didn’t mind. Being “all in,” even if it meant goosebumps, he says, was “the perfect way to start the season.”
TV casts are like family. Sometimes literally. Mark Consuelos, who plays real estate mogul Hiram Lodge, saw his real-life wife, Kelly Ripa (center, with Consuelos and Marisol Nichols), on set when she guest starred as his mistress, Mrs. Mulwray (the name is borrowed from noir classic Chinatown). “She nailed it,” Consuelos says.
So, where did Evelyn Evernever (Zoé De Grand Maison, right, with Drew Ray Tanner and Casey Cott) and the rest of the Farm’s creepy cult go when they vanished in the finale? “They may not have ascended, but they definitely went somewhere,” teases executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
Mädchen Amick (right) was a total trouper when Alice Cooper got “rebaptized” at the Farm. “I have a fear of drowning,” Amick says. “The challenge of lying backward underwater is that you can’t prevent flooding your sinuses, so I only did three takes. The wide shots were my amazing stunt double.”
Who’s the cutest couple at junior prom? Pretty Poisons pair Toni Topaz and Cheryl Blossom (Vanessa Morgan, left, and Petsch), of course. “Toni and Cheryl had a lot of ups and downs this season,” Petsch says. “I’m hopeful they will stay strong in Season 4.” Us too. #TeamChoni.
Archie (KJ Apa) and the gang just wanted to enjoy their junior year — but nothing keeps high school interesting like murder, mayhem, and cults!
Click through the gallery above for a behind-the-scenes look at Riverdale‘s third season with insight from the cast, executive producer, and costume designer.
Riverdale, Season 4 Premiere, Wednesday, October 9, 8/7c, The CW
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