Riverdale season 6 has officially introduced superpowers, as the showrunner explains how this works in The CW's own Archieverse. After an extensive hiatus, Riverdale is finally back to continue its intense sixth season. Similar to The Flash season 8, Riverdale kicked off its ongoing season with a special 5-episode event, titled Rivervale. While Rivervale didn't necessarily have any superheroes pop up as The Flash did, it served as a deeper introduction of the supernatural, following the witch twist behind Cheryl Blossom's family linage at the end of Riverdale season 5.
Despite Rivervale focusing heavily on an alternative universe for the 5-part event, the supernatural and fantastical is seemingly crossing over into the regular Riverdale reality. In the Riverdale season 6 mid-season opener, titled "Chapter One Hundred and One: Unbelievable," the episode picks up right after the bomb explosion, revealing Betty and Archie's fates. Not only did they survive, but they quickly discovered that something had changed about them. While Betty is now able to "detect" criminals around her through a red glowing aura, Archie learns that he's literally indestructible while having acquired super-strength.
As Riverdale fans are processing this new development about the couple, what inspired the show to finally introduce superpowers into the Archieverse? In a new Decider interview with showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the executive producer was asked how The CW drama is tackling the fantastical, particularly with Betty and Archie. While the writers' room is referring to their powers as "gifts," Aguirre-Sacasa stressed that it had to make sense why Archie and Betty got these specific abilities. In his mind, Betty being able to sense criminals and Archie being indestructible was to reflect their actual arcs over the last few seasons of Riverdale.
"When we talked about this, we really wanted the gifts to speak to who the characters were. And you know, Archie has over the seasons, proven to be quite indestructible. Mauled by a bear, survived, all these other things. And one of Archie’s hallmarks has always been how strong he is, and how formidable he is, and how fit and powerful he is. So that felt right. And canonically, with Betty, we’ve definitely established that Betty — in one episode, where she can look into a person’s eyes and see their true soul, and see if they’re serial killers or not, and this idea of reading auras came out of that. It felt like it was something we had played with our characters before. We tried to sort of excavate from their core, so that it didn’t come out of nowhere."
While it may have been unexpected for some Riverdale fans, it does work for the show to some degree. Despite being heavily grounded in reality, Riverdale has always teased at the possibility that things aren't as ordinary as one would think. Following the arrival of alternative realities, superpowers existing in the Riverdale universe feel more organic than they would have in previous seasons. Exactly what has triggered these gifts to manifest remains to be seen, but it's heavily speculated that Abigail Blossom's curse has something to do with it.
However, the biggest question is if Archie and Betty will actually get to keep these superpowers by the time Riverdale season 6 ends. Since the show just came back, it's hard to tell if Betty and Archie are the only ones that have been given these gifts. The only other hint the midseason premiere gave way was that Archie's dog Bingo has already healed after having all four legs broken within a few days. At this point, it wouldn't be shocking if they somehow lose their powers at some point, at least before Riverdale season 6 concludes.
Source: Decider