EXCLUSIVE: Riverdale has cast two of its four main characters. Lili Reinhart (Surviving Jack) is set to play Betty Cooper, while former Disney Channel star Cole Sprouse (The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody) will play Jughead Jones in the CW pilot based on Archie Comics.

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Set in present time, Riverdale, from producer Greg Berlanti, is a subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and their friends, exploring the surrealism of small-town life — the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome façade.

Reinhart’s Betty Cooper is sweet, studious, eager-to-please and wholesome with a huge crush on her longtime best friend, Archie. Tired of being the perfect daughter, student, sister, etc., she turns to her new friend, Veronica, for life advice — much to the consternation of her emotionally brittle mother.

Sprouse’s Jughead Jones is a heartthrob with a philosophical bent and former best friend of Archie Andrews. He is still smarting from the rift that took place between the two.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, chief creative officer of Archie Comics, wrote Riverdale and is exec producing with Berlanti Prods.’ Berlanti and Sarah Schechter as well as Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater for Warner Bros TV and studio-based Berlanti Productions.

Sprouse is best known for playing Cody on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and spinoff series The Suite Life On Deck.



Reinhart is repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and Peikoff/Mahan. Sprouse is repped by WME, Principato Young and Greenberg Traurig.