Archie Comics. Casting On February 9, 2016, Lili Reinhart and Cole Sprouse were cast as Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones, respectively. After an extensive, four-month talent search, KJ Apa was cast as Archie Andrews on February 24, 2016. That same day, Luke Perry was cast as Archie's father, Fred Andrews, while Ashleigh Murray was cast as Josie McCoy, the lead singer of the popular band Josie and the Pussycats. Later that day, Madelaine Petsch was named to the role of Cheryl Blossom. Camila Mendes was the last of the main cast to join the series, being cast as Veronica Lodge on February 26. The Lodge family, who are written as Caucasian in the comics, were adapted as Latin Americans for Riverdale. On March 3, 2016, Marisol Nichols joined the cast as Veronica's mother Hermione; the next day, Mädchen Amick was cast as Betty's mother Alice. Later that week, the supporting cast filled out with Ross Butler as Reggie Mantle, Daniel Yang as Dilton Doiley, and Cody Kearsley as Moose Mason. The last actor announced for the pilot was Casey Cott, portraying Kevin Keller, the first openly gay character in Archie Comics history. Production design Aguirre-Sacasa wanted the costuming and production to set the show's dark aesthetic, telling Vanity Fair, "people had so many preconceived ideas about what the show was going to be - that it would be light and frothy and bubblegum pink - that we knew we needed to take a big swing right out of the gate, to make something that was highly designed, highly curated." Multiple actors had to dye their hair for their roles. Reinhart and Sprouse, both natural dirty blondes, needed to dye their hair a lighter blonde and black, respectively. Apa, meanwhile, underwent the most intensive process to turn his naturally brunette hair red for Archie. Hala Bahmet, who went on to work on This Is Us, served as costume designer for "The River's Edge". She worked with Aguirre-Sacasa to design each character's aesthetic, a combination of modern and vintage fashion. Bahmet worked with a knitter to design Jughead's beanie, which was designed with subtle points to reflect the whoopee cap that his character wears in the original comics. Filming Filming for the pilot took place between March 14 and March 31, 2016 in the Vancouver metropolitan area, with the exception of establishing shots of the town, which were filmed in Harbor Springs,