Archie is a real 21st- century guy in CW’s ‘ Riverdale’

Archie’s not a kid anymore.

Or at least not the same kid we knew from the old Archie comics.

In CW’s upcoming Riverdale, due Jan. 26, he’s hot, ripped, and a sexually active 16- year- old — and caught in the middle of a

Twin Peaks- ish murder. And that’s just in the first episode.

Produced by Greg Berlanti, the man behind CW’s string of DC superhero hits, Riverdale is in line with a recent darkening of the character in the comics. Still, it may challenge those who only remember Archie as a bright, happy, slightly goofy teen caught between Betty and Veronica.

Roberto Aguirre- Sacasa, an executive producer chief creative officer of the Archie Comics, isn’t worried. After all, he says, the company did a book that mixed Archie and zombies, and fans loved it. And they loved it because, no matter his setting, Archie was still Archie.

“Even though Archie was now in the middle of the zombie apocalypse,” Aguirre- Sacasa told television critics, “he was still the Archie we knew. He was still basically a good kid, trying to do the right thing, sometimes messing up, but ultimately having things work out.”

Riverdale stars New Zealand actor KJ Apa as the ( dyed) redheaded football hero, yearning for a music career while working for his single- parent father, played by Luke Perry of Beverly Hills, 90210. Lili Reinhart is Archie’s best friend, Betty, while Camila Mendes is Veronica, a New York socialite who arrives in Riverdale in the premiere. As a New Zealander, Apa says his high- school experience did not mirror Archie’s; “My school was more like Hogwarts.” But he can relate to the basic story of a boy who is trying to find his pas- sion and figure out what he’s meant to do.

Oh, and when he was a kid, did he watch the 1990 teen hit that launched his TV father to stardom? “I didn’t, but my mom definitely did.”

That’s Archie for you; always saying the wrong thing.

More CW news: Network chief Mark Pedowitz told the Television Critics Association about seven early renewals. New seasons of DC Comics series Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl, which it inherited from parent CBS, will be back for the 2017- 2018 season, along with Crazy Ex- Girlfriend, Jane the Virgin and Supernatural, which is returning for a 13th season. Missing from the early- renewal list are midseason returning series iZombie, The Originals and The 100; The Vampire Diaries, which is ending its run this spring; and new fall series No Tomorrow and Frequency.

DIYAH PERA, CW KJ Apa is Archie and Luke Perry is his dad, Fred, in a gritty new take on the comic book high schooler.