Riverdale, like the rest of the world, suffered a huge loss earlier this year with the death of Luke Perry.
There were only three episodes left in this season to film when Perry passed and as of Wednesday’s season finale the show has address Fred Andrews absence by saying he was “away” on business.
“When Luke passed, it was such a shock, and it was devastating and we kind of have to deal with the emotion of that, and then you have to figure out everything that comes next. And we’d already pretty much plotted out the rest of the season. We’d written a bunch of the rest of the season and it felt like rather than try to squeeze something—and for me, something that’s so monumental and so defining…and we didn’t know how we wanted to deal with it. You know, you’re just reacting. So we thought rather than do it quickly or do it wrong, let’s take our time, let’s figure it out, and let’s deal with it at the beginning of season four.”