Riverdale Fans, We Know Now Why Charles Melton's Reggie Disappeared

Despite its fairly strange premise, Riverdale, a supernatural horror series based on the characters from Archie Comics, has managed to become quite successful.

The audience had much fun following the characters in a slice-of-life story getting thrust into a completely different genre and discovering that their quiet town of Riverdale is actually a powder keg of supernatural and mundane nastiness. Now, Riverdale is in its seventh and final season.

In the first episodes of Season 7, Archie and his pals are facing the challenges of high school after they were thrown back in time to 1955 by the latest supernatural event, with all but one of them forgetting their old lives and completely reverting to their younger selves.

And there is one question bothering many of the show's viewers — where is Reggie, and what happened to him as the result of that time displacement?

Played by Charles Melton, Reggie Mantle is Archie's long-time rival, who has been one of the show's regulars since Season 2. However, the character is missing in the opening episodes of Season 7. Fans have been wondering: are the showrunners saving the character for later, or is his absence a result of Charles Melton's scheduling troubles?

'It was a little bit of both,' Riverdale's showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told TVLine, commenting on Reggie's absence in Season 7. He then added, 'Even before the scheduling conflict came up, we were thinking: "Ooh, we might hold Reggie a little bit before his return".'

We know that Charles Melton has been busy recently, thanks to his appearances on Peacock's Poker Face and Hulu's History of the World: Part II. But for Riverdale, these scheduling conflicts may be especially sensitive because Reggie had already experienced an actor change, which fortunately happened before he became one of the main characters.

So while the showrunner admitted that there is in fact a scheduling conflict, Reggie's absence in the first episodes of Season 7 is also apparently required by the narrative.

It turns out there is a big new storyline coming, which will involve the local basketball team, and Reggie will be at its center.

The next episode of Riverdale will hit the screens on April 19.