The CW’s Riverdale Makes Some Major Casting Choices

The CW’s Riverdale has had quite the casting shakeups this week with two big pieces of news coming out this week.

With a recent cast addition as well as a major departure (and call for a recast), fans can get excited that the Riverdale small town drama will undoubtedly continue into next season with these interesting characters.

Here’s the good news: Veronica’s father, Hiram Lodge, has officially been cast in a series regular role. The shady businessman has been a huge presence in Riverdale since the beginning of the show despite never being seen on-screen.

His return to town has been all but guaranteed since he forced his daughter to testify on his behalf in hopes of getting out jail early. With his newly acquired assets in the community, it seems like the elder Lodge will be rolling into town as a wealthy free man. Who will be taking on the role of one the manipulative patriarch of the Lodge family?

Photo Credit: Mike Coppola/ Getty

Mark Consuelos, who rose to fame as Mateo Santos on All My Children, will be stepping into the silver fox’s shoes. The only thing that could possibly get into the way is the fact that Consuelos is still under contract for ABC’s Pitch and if the show manages to get renewed, he will be unable to step into the small town of Riverdale.

Pitch has been a bubble show all season and seems unlikely to return which will at least put some fans at ease that the CW will need to find a new actor in a short period of time.

Photo Credit: Netflix

The bad news is that Riverdale will need to find a new Reggie before filming starts for season two. Ross Butler, rising actor from 13 Reasons Why has been forced to leave Riverdale because of scheduling conflicts which hint that the popular Netflix series will score a renewal.

Because of his obligations to 13 Reasons Why last year, Butler was downgraded from a series regular to recurring despite playing one of the most iconic Archie Comics characters, Reggie Mantle. His casting drew a lot of positive buzz, early on, because of his Asian ethnicity and the charisma he brought to the few scenes he had in the series thus far.

Luckily, the ongoing rumor is the CW is hoping to cast another Asian actor in the role which falls in line with the diverse cast that Riverdale has.

Photo Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/ Getty

While many cast departures can be riddled with drama, this isn’t the cast with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (the chief creative officer of Archie Comics and Riverdale creator) breaking the news with a comment in a recent interview with TVLine:

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"We love what Ross did with the role of Reggie [this season], but because of his commitments to other projects, we couldn’t use him nearly as much as we would have liked. [Next season], we want more Reggie on our show – he’s Archie’s rival!- and because Ross is unavailable to come back to Riverdale, we’re looking for a new Reggie. Those are big shoes to fill, but we’re confident we can find an actor who is as funny and sexy as Ross. And of course, we all wish Ross the best."

While it’s definitely a shame that Butler won’t be able to split the time between the two shows because he really is quite good, Riverdale fans will be happy to know that Reggie Mantle will finally get the screen time he deserves.

Riverdale is allegedly getting a 23 or 24 episode order for season two, according to cast member Lochlyn Munro, and with the additions of two new series regulars (Consuelos and the yet to be cast Mantle), fans can get excited for some bigger storylines for the supporting characters.

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Hiram Lodge and Reggie Mantle are two characters who are guaranteed to bring a lot of manipulative shenanigans to town and will make fun (kind of) villains to the main characters but especially Veronica next season.