UPDATE: Deadline has confirmed that Disney+ is developing an hourlong Afterlife with Archie drama series, which has received a script-to-series commitment. Executive producers include Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Jimmy Gibbons for Muckle Man Productions; Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Leigh London Redman for Berlanti Productions; and Jon Goldwater for Archie Comics Studios.
Our original article, published on August 20th, follows:
The comic book character Archie Andrews was created in 1941 by publisher John L. Goldwater and artist Bob Montana, in collaboration with writer Vic Bloom, but one of his most popular iterations was in the TV series Riverdale, a show that had a harder edge than the average Archie comic book. Created by by Archie Comics’ chief creative officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Riverdale ran on The CW for seven seasons, from 2017 to 2023. It’s been a quiet couple of years since Riverdale went off the air, but now there appears to be two Archie projects in development at the same time. We just shared the news that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are producing an Archie movie for Universal, and now we can also share that industry scooper Jeff Sneider of The InSneider is reporting that a series adaptation of the zombie outbreak comic Afterlife with Archie is in the works at Disney+.
Riverdale was produced by Warner Bros. Television Studios, and Sneider reports that “Warner Bros. tried to stake a claim to the Archie IP in perpetuity based on a loose reading of the contract for Riverdale. Goldwater and his agents spent more than a year extricating him and Archie Comics from the Warner Bros. contract, though WB got to hang onto Afterlife with Archie as part of the deal.” So Goldwater is still working with the studio to bring this story to the screen. While Netflix and Amazon pursued the project, Disney+ came out the winner in the race for the rights and Disney Television Studios is partnering with Warner Bros. Television Studios to produce the show.
Aguirre-Sacasa wrote the Afterlife with Archie comic book and will serve as showrunner on the series. The story takes place in an alternate reality where the town of Riverdale faces a zombie outbreak. Wikipedia notes that the comic was the first Archie title not to be aimed at children and is rated “TEEN+”, as it includes content and subject matter never explored in any previous Archie title, including extensive realistic violence, some gore, necrotic themes, disturbing scenes, and moderate language. Disney+ executive Charlie Andrews is said to be planning to develop the show over the next year, with the goal of getting it greenlit by next summer.
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