RELATED STORIES Katy Keene Stages Another Riverdale Crossover: What Brings Kevin to NYC?

Katy Keene Stages Another Riverdale Crossover: What Brings Kevin to NYC? Riverdale Musical First Look: Cheryl, Kevin and the Gang All Get Angry as Hedwig — Plus, Meet the Archies!

Step aside for a second, Archie: It’s time for Kevin Keller to get the spotlight.

Riverdale returns this Wednesday (The CW, 8/7c) with an all-new musical episode, and Kevin takes center stage in it, planning a school variety show in which he’ll do a number from the cult favorite Hedwig and the Angry Inch. But when Principal Honey objects to his song selection, it sets off a student rebellion that takes over the whole school — and brings out a newly defiant side in Kevin.

“There’s been a lot brewing with Kevin this season, and I think it’s kind of bubbled to a brim where we can’t help but have him explode,” Casey Cott, who plays Kevin, tells TVLine. “It was really fun in this episode watching Kevin own it and go for it and stop apologizing and just really show up. I think it’s going to be a great launch pad for Kevin in the future.”

Watch a sneak peek of this week’s Riverdale right here:

Kevin ends up performing as Hedwig anyway… but getting into the full costume wasn’t easy. “The hair and makeup was two and a half hours, usually starting with the makeup, which was crazy,” Cott reveals. “I learned how to sit still for the first time. And then the wig, we’d chuck on, which took a bit, too.” But he did get a spiritual boost from the wig he wore, which had some powerful Hedwig energy: “The wig is actually the wig from the Hedwig movie that John Cameron Mitchell wore, so that’s pretty cool.”

But where does Cott fall on Season 4’s biggest controversy: the emerging love triangle between Archie, Betty and Jughead? (After all, Kevin famously declared Archie and Betty “endgame” back in Season 1.) “I feel like however I answer this question, there are going to be hundreds of people outside my home egging it,” he jokes, before adding: “I kind of like the idea of Archie and Betty getting together. They haven’t been able to explore that. I think it’d probably be more of an Archie characteristic, to be in love with Betty for his whole life and then they end up being together, than a Betty characteristic. It seems like there’s a lot more darkness, a lot more curiosity [to her]. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens there.”

Riverdale fans, drop your predictions for the rest of Season 4 in the comments.