#’Riverdale’ Kicks Off Season 5 Filming With Archie in a Steam Room (PHOTO)

We’ve had teases of the virtual table reads — and what’s to come in the first four episodes of Riverdale Season 5, thanks to titles — and now it’s time to get a look at the new footage being filmed for the CW drama’s 2021 return.

“First scene up of Season 5: Archie in a steam room,” executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa shared, alongside a photo of KJ Apa from one of the high school-set episodes, on Monday (September 14). “Even in a Covid world, some things never change…”

Annnnnd #Riverdale is back. First scene up of Season 5: Archie in a steam room. Even in a Covid world, some things never change…????❤️ pic.twitter.com/DJznFr0wYX

— RobertoAguirreSacasa (@WriterRAS) September 14, 2020

The EP also posted a photo of himself with cast members celebrating Lili Reinhart’s (Betty Cooper) birthday Sunday night. He noted that they’d quarantined for 14 days and had been prepping for the new season for months.

Aguirre-Sacasa previously posted script pages for Episodes 501-504: “Chapter Seventy-Seven: Climax,” “Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Preppy Murders,” Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation,” and “Chapter Eighty: Purgatory.” The first three episodes of the new season will cover the rest of senior year, including prom and graduation. Aguirre-Sacasa had already posted a photo from the dance of fan-favorite couple Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan), from a scene filmed prior to production shutting down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. (They’d been filming the prom episode, which will now be the Season 5 premiere.)

“Rest assured, ALL the queens will reigning SUPREMELY next season,” the EP had promised at the time. In June, Morgan posted on social media that she was “tired” of Black characters “being used as side kick non dimensional characters to our white leads,” and Aguirre-Sacasa then wrote that they’d “do better to honor her and the character she plays. As well as all of our actors and characters of color.”

Following the graduation episode, Riverdale is expected to jump forward seven years, as Reinhart shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in August.

Amidst the uncertainty of production starting for the 2020-2021 season, the CW announced its returning and new series would be premiering in January this year (instead of the usual October).

Riverdale, Season 5, 2021, The CW