Warning: Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Riverdale, titled “Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!” are being discussed within.
In between musical numbers, lost and found siblings, and burning cars full of evidence, tonight’s episode of Riverdale featured a kiss that many fans had been waiting for, between Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Betty (Lili Reinhart). Of course, there’s also a faction of Archie Comics and general fans on social media who were hoping for an asexual Jughead as recently introduced in the comics.
During our recent visit to the set of Riverdale in Vancouver, shortly before the cast wrapped for Season One, we asked Cole Sprouse for his two cents on this getting together of characters.
“I think first and foremost, this conversation deserves more time than something that we can quickly do here,” Sprouse told us before telling us his very informed and researched opinion on the sexuality of Jughead Jones. “There are two forms of representation Jughead has received over time. In [Chip] Zdarsky’s Jughead, he’s asexual. That’s the only Jughead where he is asexual. He’s aromantic in the digests, which is a different thing and deserves attention as well, but what I found when I was really diving in– because once we started putting Jughead and Betty together, I started diving into try and find out if that’s a narrative that even exists in the digests — it turns out, it is. It’s a narrative that’s existed for a long time. There are a handful of digests in which Jughead would say things like ‘Oh, Betty, if I did like women I guarantee you would be the one I would marry outright. You are the best person around.’ He would say these things that are really romantic and cute with an appreciation for Betty and I think it’s become clear to me now that Roberto has taken off with that,” Cole explained.
“As much as there’s a large community of people who really want to see Jughead as asexual, and I am a huge proponent for that kind of representation, there’s also quite a large community of avid Archie fans that want Betty and Jughead to be together, too. I think these are things we need to juggle when considering what Jughead is in Riverdale. This is a new universe, this is a new take on Jughead, and he is this tortured damaged kid — this Holden Caulfield [type character] — and that narrative itself is also beautiful. While I think that representation is needed, this Jughead is not that Jughead. This Jughead is not Zdarsky’s Jughead and this Jughead is not the aromantic Jughead. This Jughead is a person who is looking for a kind of deeper companionship with a person like Betty..and Betty ends up being this super nurturing, caring, catering person that with Jughead’s super screwed-up past, they end up diving into each other and it ends up being a beautiful thing,” Sprouse continued.
How are people going to respond to this storyline? “Truthfully, they’re probably going to be quite incendiary about it at first. Do I think that’s ill-placed? No. Do I think they should give it a shot? Yeah, I do, because I think that after filming thirteen episodes, it makes sense to me and if it makes sense to me as the person who’s dumping so much time and so much argumentation into trying to represent Jughead correctly, it will make sense to other people as well,” the actor hoped.
What did you think of the Jughead and Betty pairing? Come talk about it on our Riverdale forum or Tweet to us @RiverdaleTV on Twitter!
Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9PM ET/PT on The CW. Check out our podcast, the Archie Digest!
2 Comments
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Jughead never said things in the comics that were “romantic” to Betty in a sincere, non-joking way, unless he was under a magic spell or something like that. The kind of lines Cole Sprouse is referring to are things Jughead would say to express that he liked and admired Betty PLATONICALLY, and the stories made it clear it was just platonic. I don’t care if Jughead and Betty get together because his character (and looks) already are so drastically changed from the comics, he’s really not Jughead anymore. But don’t try to give people the impression that their comics relationship is something it’s not.
Seriously? He can be Asexual AND in a relationship with Betty. Asexuality is a lack of sexual attraction. Asexuality is a large spectrum. Some Asexuals are sex repulsed, some are indifferent, and some are sex favourable. Being Asexual doesn’t mean they don’t have sex, they just don’t feel sexual attraction.