‘Riverdale’ Season 4 Premiere Teaser Confirms Major Character’s Death

Riverdale’s Season 4 premiere is just days away, and a new promo confirms a major character death that, while expected, still hurts. The season premiere appears to be fully dedicated to the character, with the show’s cast of character coming together to celebrate their memory.

Spoilers ahead for Riverdale’s Season 4 premiere.

As many expected, The CW’s Archie Comics drama will say goodbye to Fred Andrews (Luke Perry) in its next episode. The decision to kill off Fred, who is the father of main character Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), comes due to the real-life death of Perry earlier in 2019.

The main setting of the promo is a cemetary in the midst of Fred’s funeral. In addition to Archie, many of his friends are also there, including Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch).

“Fred Andrews will always be a part of Riverdale,” Archie says in the eulogy. “I love you so much, Dad.”

Outside of the funeral scene, we see Archie learning the news of Fred’s death, as well as all the characters coming to terms with the death.

“He was a father to all of us,” Betty says in one clip.

In another, Archie says, “I don’t know what to do.”

Perry, 52, died on March 4 after suffering a stroke a few days earlier. He was in the midst of starring in Season 3 of Riverdale at the time, so production was shut down while the cast and crew grieved. Producers decided to wait until Season 4 to address Fred’s absence, simply having the character travel out of town while Season 3’s plots ran their course.

“When Luke passed, we very quickly made the decision that we weren’t going to address it (yet),” executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told TVLine. “We didn’t want to rush it. We didn’t want to sandwich it in between all the other plotlines.”

They even considered a cliffhanger, but they ultimately thought that “felt a little cheap.”

“We thought, ‘Let’s just hold it, so we can think about it over the hiatus and reflect on it,” he said. “It kind of allowed us to absorb what happened, and really think about what kind of story we wanted to tell.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

Photo Credit: The CW