Jason Blossom Lives: Interview With Riverdale’s Trevor Stines

Jason Blossom may have perished after the events of the Riverdale pilot, but the actor who plays him, Trevor Stines, is very much alive and a recurring part of the Riverdale ensemble. As the spectre of Jason looms large over the cast — especially within his sister, Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) — it’s not surprising that Stines has been brought back for several return appearances throughout the first season.

We were able to speak to Trevor at a recent visit to the Riverdale sets in Vancouver during the last week of filming Season One, and upon his sitting down at the table, the first thing we had to ask is whether he or the cast knew that Jason Blossom lived for a week after “drowning” at the river’s edge.

“We definitely were not aware,” Trevor said, revealing that he didn’t even know his character was for-sure dead when he read the script. “I remember reading the pilot and the whole time I was like, ‘There’s no body. There’s no body! There’s no way I’m actually dead, it’s not true.’ Then I get to the end and you see the body wash up on shore and I’m like ‘Oh, never mind, I’m dead as a doornail’,” he recalled. And yet, he’s been in so many episodes. “You can’t get rid of me!” he exclaimed.

Since Jason is, you know, dead, that means that Trevor isn’t in the episodes as much as some of his other costars, which in some ways makes him feel like an audience member. “Week by week, episode by episode, I get to learn more and more about who my character is, even if I’m not in the episode. The mystery around Jason unravels for me at the same pace as it does for the audience. I find out with every new script another new layer of who he is. This week [Episode 3], for the playbook, I was reading it and I was like ‘No way, this is slander, I cannot believe this,’ but yeah, I get to learn about the layers and the complexities of who this guy is every time I get to step on set and perform him. I wouldn’t say it’s jarring, it’s definitely an interesting experience, but it’s juicy. It’s a good time,” he enthused. As for the many times he ended up coming back during Season One, Stines had “no idea” that would be coming.

Related: Riverdale Episode 5 Photos: “Chapter Five: Heart of Darkness”

“I remember after we shot the pilot, I was talking to my friends and I was like, ‘Okay, first of all we’ve got to get picked up. Second of all, then they have to decide to bring me back,’ and I wasn’t confident that they were going to. Then every time my agent would tell me they were going to bring me back for another episode, I took it as icing on the cake. Getting to be a part of this project at all has been an amazing experience for me,” Trevor said gratefully.

Would Trevor be down for playing a Zombie Jason in a special Afterlife with Archie episode?  “I would love that,” Trevor said. “I’ve had the opportunity to read some of the Afterlife with Archie comics written by Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa], and I love that series. It’s so good. If there was a whole Afterlife-themed episode, that would be so much fun for me.” (On our Archie Digest podcast, Chris Hayner suggested it would be fun if Jason is Patient Zero.)

Finally, Stines says he is looking forward to seeing how the first season of Riverdale plays out for fans. “I’m really excited to see how the audience responds to all of the mysteries in Riverdale as they unfold episode by episode. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see people. I’ve already seen so many theories come out, and to see everything come to light, it’s going to be great,” he said.

Riverdale airs Thursday nights at 9PM ET/PT on The CW. Browse KSiteTV for more Riverdale content and be sure to subscribe to the Archie Digest Podcast on iTunes!