‘Riverdale’ Season Premiere Will Be Tribute to Luke Perry

Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa says “In Memoriam” is “probably the most important episode of ‘Riverdale’ we’ll do this year, if not ever”

Riverdale
The CW

The Season 4 premiere of “Riverdale” will be a tribute to late cast member Luke Perry, the CW drama’s showrunner said on Wednesday.

“Probably the most important episode of #Riverdale we’ll do this year, if not ever,” Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa wrote on Twitter, sharing the title page for the episode script. “A tribute to our fallen friend. Thankful for this opportunity to honor Luke & Fred.”

Written by Aguirre-Sacasa and to be directed by Gabriel Correa, the episode titled “In Memoriam” will air on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

Perry, who co-starred as Fred Andrews on the network’s Archie Comics adaptation since its premiere, died earlier this year at the age of 52 after a “massive” stroke and subsequent hospitalization. His final appearance on the show aired last season.

“We’d started writing the end of the season and we made the decision to not address it at the end of Season 3 because we felt it would be rushed,” Aguirre-Sacasa previously said in an interview with TheWrap. “We felt it wouldn’t be the right way to honor neither Luke nor the character Fred. So we decided not long after the tragedy that we would wait and do a tribute to Luke and honoring his memory and deal with losing Fred Andrews at the beginning of Season 4.”

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