| Bgcolour: |
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| Starring: | |
| Prev Season: | Season 3 |
| Next Season: | Season 5 |
| Episode List: | List of Riverdale episodes |
| Network: | The CW |
| Num Episodes: | 19 |
| Season Number: | 4 |
The fourth season of Riverdale premiered on The CW on October 9, 2019, and concluded on May 6, 2020, with a total of 19 episodes. The series was based on the characters from the Archie Comics, created by Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater, and was created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
The principal cast included KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Marisol Nichols, Madelaine Petsch, Mädchen Amick, Mark Consuelos, Casey Cott, Skeet Ulrich, Charles Melton and Vanessa Morgan returning from the previous season. Ashleigh Murray, who portrayed Josie McCoy on the previous seasons, exited the main cast after the first episode of the season, as she was cast in a leading role on the Riverdale spin-off series Katy Keene.
This was the first season of the series not to feature Luke Perry, who died on March 4, 2019,[1] weeks before the completion of the third season. The season premiere was a tribute dedicated to him and his character on the show, Fred Andrews.
The season continued to develop the previous season cliffhanger, detailing Jughead's apparent murder and Archie, Betty and Veronica's involvement in it, while also focusing on the mysteries surrounding Jughead's new school and classmates. As well, the season focused on The Voyeur/Auteur, an anonymous person who has been videotaping some of Riverdale's residences, and then evolves to re-enact the gruesome murders of some of the town's deceased residents in video, while wearing masks crafted to their likeness.
See also: List of Riverdale episodes.
On January 31, 2019, The CW renewed the show for a fourth season.[2] Filming for the season began on July 8, 2019, and was initially scheduled to end on April 4, 2020.[3] On June 19, 2019, it was announced the season premiere would serve as a tribute to actor Luke Perry and his character Fred Andrews;[4] the series' writing team opted to wait until early in season four to directly address the absence of Fred, who had been "away on business" during the final episodes of season three. On July 25, 2019, it was announced the season would include the first Halloween-themed episode of the series.[5]
On February 5, 2019, Ashleigh Murray was cast in the Riverdale's spin-off series, Katy Keene,[6] and when the show was picked up by The CW for the 2019-20 season, Murray was announced to be leaving the main cast of Riverdale.[7] However, she made a final regular appearance on the first episode of the season and hoped for some crossover appearances between both shows. On May 15, 2019, it was announced the return of Wyatt Nash, who played Charles Smith (Betty's half-brother) at the third-season finale, would return during the season as a recurring character.[8] On July 22, 2019, it was announced Shannen Doherty would appear during the tribute episode to Luke Perry as a guest star.[9] Doherty was a long-time friend and co-star with Perry on Beverly Hills, 90210. On July 30, 2019, it was announced that Sam Witwer had joined the cast playing the recurring character of Mr. Chipping, Jughead's teacher.[10] Juan Riedinger join the cast as Dodger, Archie's next new enemy, on August 19, 2019.[11] On September 5, 2019, Mishel Prada joined the cast as Hermosa Lodge, a private investigator and half-sister to Veronica.[12] On October 21, 2019, it was announced Ryan Robbins and Timothy Webber would join the recurring cast playing Frank Andrews, Fred's young brother and Archie's uncle, and Forsythe Pendleton Jones I, F.P.'s father and Jughead's grandfather respectively.[13] [14] On February 24, 2020, TVLine confirmed costars Skeet Ulrich and Marisol Nichols, who played F.P. Jones and Hermione Lodge, respectively, were leaving the show after the conclusion of the fourth season.[15] However, after the COVID-19 pandemic halted production of season four, both stars were announced to return to film the original final episodes of the season, which were ultimately moved to the beginning of season five. Additionally, Marisol Nichols announced on June 12, 2020, that she would be staying in the show for season five after all.[16]
On March 11, 2020, production of the season was shut down indefinitely after a member of the cast or crew came in contact with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19. Up to that point, the season had produced only 19 out of the 22 originally announced episodes and was in the middle of shooting of the twentieth episode.[17] As a result, the show went on a hiatus following the premiere of the sixteenth episode on March 11, 2020, and returned with the seventeenth episode on April 15, 2020, which was delayed a week of its original premiere date. It was announced on April 23, 2020, that production for the season would not resume and instead, the season would end on May 6, 2020, with its nineteenth episode, 3 episodes early than expected.[18] The 3 remaining episodes of this season were later moved to the beginning of season five.
The first trailer for the season was released on September 11, 2019.[19] A second trailer was screened at the 2019 New York Comic Con on October 6, 2019[20] The season premiered on October 9, 2019, and was scheduled to end on mid May 2020 with its 22nd. episode, however, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced production of the season to shut down with only 19 of the episodes being completed, the season ended with its 19th. episode on May 6, 2020.[17] The season was released on Netflix for the United States on May 14, 2020[21] and for Latin America on October 9, 2020.[22] The season was released on DVD by Warner Archives on September 22, 2020, and it is the first season of the show not to be released on Blu-Ray.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season holds an approval rating of 84% based on 63 reviews, and an average rating of 6.85/10.[23]