Disney develops Afterlife with Archie as Riverdale zombie drama

Disney is developing an hourlong drama series based on the Archie Comics miniseries Afterlife with Archie, the company announced, giving the project a script-to-series commitment. The adaptation will reimagine the town of Riverdale as an apocalyptic environment beset by a zombie outbreak, with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the comic's writer and Archie Comics chief creative officer, attached to write and serve as an executive producer.

The television version will be produced by Aguirre-Sacasa's Muckle Man Productions alongside Berlanti Productions and Archie Comics Studios, with Warner Bros. Television involved as a producing partner. Executive producers attached to the project include Aguirre-Sacasa and Jimmy Gibbons for Muckle Man, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman for Berlanti Productions, and Jon Goldwater for Archie Comics Studios. The series is based on the comic created by Aguirre-Sacasa with artist Francesco Francavilla, which juxtaposed the franchise's familiar characters and small-town setting against graphic, horror-driven storylines.

The Afterlife with Archie comic, first published in 2013, was the first Archie title aimed at an older audience and...