How Riverdale made Archie relevant for a new generation of fans
The CW’s Riverdale has become a hit by adapting one of the most unlikely pieces of source material: the all-American line of Archie Comics. With a darker, more glamorous take, the show has been able to bring an entirely new audience to the traditionally wholesome high school adventures of Archie and his friends Betty, Veronica, and Jughead. A panel dedicated to the character at New York Comic Con this past Saturday highlighted the schism between the old and the new, revealing an unlikely key to the success of both Archie and Riverdale.
The members of the Comic Con audience were largely young girls and boys, with a smattering of teenagers, and talking to them afterwards it was clear they had largely fallen into the world of Archie…