Archie Andrews has lived , died and gone through a zombie apocalypse . And now , the comic book character is returning to TV . Archie Andrews ' prior big foray onto the small screen was `` The Archie Show , '' which aired on Saturday mornings in the late 1960s . Fox is now bringing him back , as early as next fall , in a live-action show called `` Riverdale '' that promises to be pretty different from the traditional Archie comics we 're used to reading . ( And we wo n't even go into the ill-fated 1990 NBC TV movie . ) CNN spoke to writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa , who also does the creepy `` Afterlife With Archie '' comic books , about `` Riverdale '' after the series was announced Thursday . CNN : How long has this idea been floating around ? Aguirre-Sacasa : It 's something we 've been talking about for a while . When [ publisher ] Jon Goldwater and I first met , we talked about live action -- we actually were thinking about doing it as a movie . We even got so far as selling it to Warner Bros. , but we soon realized that there were many , many different stories we wanted to tell , and actually it was probably more suited to a TV show . It 's been in the works for a few years , but the stars are finally aligning . ( Warner Bros. Television , like CNN , is owned by Time Warner . ) CNN : Will the characters be recognizable as the Archie characters we know ? Aguirre-Sacasa : Archie 's still gon na have red hair , Betty is still gon na have blond hair and Veronica 's gon na have dark hair . We are definitely not casting them retro-style to look like the comic book characters . They will definitely be contemporary kids . The pilot is set on the first day of school , after Archie was working for his dad 's construction company . He 's gon na be all buff and muscular , and that 's why all the girls fall for Archie . We 're tweaking the mythology a bit to answer questions people have had for 75 years . Jughead is still gon na wear that paper crown , it 's so iconic . We are explaining for the first time in 75 years why he 's wearing the crown . All these Easter eggs will have an explanation finally . They 'll look like their iconic selves but with an edgier quality . Jughead will be more like Donnie Darko . CNN : We hear the tone will be quite different from what we know . Aguirre-Sacasa : A lot of the subtext is bubbling to the surface . One of the big stories we 're telling in the pilot is that Veronica Lodge and her mother , Hermione Lodge , are moving to Riverdale because they 're fleeing a financial scandal that her dad is involved in . It 's very real world . Kevin Keller is a big character in the comic books . In the comics , he 's completely accepted as being gay , and there 's no question about that . In the show , we 'll look at what that really means for kids in a small town coming out -- who accepts them and who does n't accept them . Reggie has always been a frat boy douchebag , and we 've never gotten to the core of why that is , and we 're going to explore that , it has to do with Reggie 's relationship with his parents . We 're getting to the realness and the complexity of the characters . We 're not going to arbitrarily make it dark , but we 'll get real with these characters and make it a little bit weird , like `` Twin Peaks '' or `` Blue Velvet , '' which is one of my favorite movies . CNN : But will it still be funny ? Aguirre-Sacasa : There will absolutely be humor in this . The voice will have a sardonic , ironic edge to it . The characters will be witty and funny , and every story will be a quintessential `` Archie '' story with a twist to it . The humor will always be part of the bread and butter . CNN : And the show will expand beyond the core characters ? Aguirre-Sacasa : Archie Comics have thousands of characters in their library . One of the example is how `` Arrow '' introduced the Flash and spun `` The Flash '' off . We thought it would be great to have Josie and the Pussycats as a rival band , and they can spin off their own show .
DC Comics characters will return to television in a live action series . The show will have as much in common with ` ` Twin Peaks '' as the characters . The show is scheduled for next fall on NBC .