Riverdale season 3’s starting soon and thinks we’re all here for Archie

Riverdale season 3 will start production at the end of this week, and this came in an announcement featuring KJ Apa getting ready to play Archie again.

Although it continues to bemuse us here at Culturess, Archie Andrews is the main character of Riverdale. Granted, he’s more part of an ensemble cast at this point, but when the brand itself is named after him, then Archie’s still the main character.

Filming for the new season is about to kick off, with both showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and the Archie Comics official Twitter feed giving the date as this Friday, July 6. Of course, just a tweet doesn’t get much in the way of attention, so they both included a certain photo of KJ Apa with some boxing gloves on and his hair dyed back to Archie-like hues.

And you know what? It’s a nice picture to help ameliorate some of the dumpster fire that has been the start of July and the end of June.

Here it is:

It’s really unsurprising that Apa would get in the gym and work out. We don’t think Archie being in prison will be a plot point of season 3 of Riverdale for too terribly long, but he is an athlete on the show anyway. We’d expect him to be in shape for filming to begin.

The boxing gloves might signify something, though. Over season 2, Archie develops into someone even more willing to fight for whichever side he’s already on, insistent that he’s going to “make his bones” no matter what. For whom he will do that does change by the end of season 2, but that also pretty directly leads into his arrest and frame-up for murder in the finale.

Presumably, the third season will escalate even further now that the town is pretty much in an all-out cold war. It seems like Archie, at the very least, is ready for it.

Next: 25 shows to watch if you miss Riverdale

Now how about a photo of Madeline Petsch rocking Cheryl Blossom’s scarlet Southside Serpents jacket, Archie Comics?