Riverdale season 2 spoilers: Ross Butler departing; Reggie to be recast

Riverdale season 2 is coming your way during the 2017-18 season, but no matter when it airs, it appears you’re getting a new Reggie.

Speaking in a new statement courtesy of TVLine, show executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa made it perfectly clear that Ross Butler was not going to be able to return to the show to play Archie’s rival further; as a result of that, the producers are going to be finding someone new:

“We love what Ross did with the role of Reggie [this season], but because of his commitments to other projects, we couldn’t use him nearly as much as we would have liked … [Next season], we want more Reggie on our show — he’s Archie’s rival! — and because Ross is unavailable to come back to Riverdale, we’re looking for a new Reggie. Those are big shoes to fill, but we’re confident we can find an actor who is as funny and sexy as Ross. And of course we all wish Ross the best.”

As for why there is this pressing need to recast, Butler is a part of one of the breakout hits of the year in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. While we have no clue what sort of form a new season of that show is going to take, it seems close to a lock that it is being renewed. We don’t blame the producers of Riverdale or anyone for starting to think with that knowledge in mind. After all, it makes a little bit of sense for them to prepare more for the future.

In general, we do think that Riverdale, like any other show out there across the TV landscape, would like to not have to recast rolls if at all possible. However, sometimes you just have to realize that this is something that needs to be done. You can’t always guarantee that you’re going to have actors stick around, and if they are not regulars, they can decide to move along and find another gig. This is something that we’ve seen many times over at the moment for Game of Thrones, and we also have to assume that this is something that we’ll see with many other shows in the future.