What’s up y’all?
It’s Emile Ennis Jr. with Clevver News and apparently the Riverdale creator wants to
do right by the Pussycats and is considering bringing them back on the show!
Alright, so if you’ve been keeping up with all the Riverdale news these past few weeks,
you know that the show has been called out by its cast members for lack of Black representation,
and it seems like some changes might already be underway.
Last month, Vanessa Morgan, who plays Toni Topaz, said quote, “I’m not being quiet
anymore.
Tired of how black people are portrayed in media.
Tired of us being portrayed as thugs, dangerous or angry, scary people.
Tired of us also being used as sidekick non-dimensional characters to our white leads.
Or only in the ads for diversity but not actually in the show.
It starts with the media.
I’m not being quiet anymore.”
She also revealed that while she’s the only black series regular, she’s also the least
paid.
The show’s creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa issued a public apology to Vanessa.
He said quote, “We hear Vanessa.
We love Vanessa.
She’s right.
We’re sorry and we make the same promise to you that we did to her.
We will do better to honor her and the character she plays.
As well as all of our actors and characters of color.”
But Vanessa wasn’t the only Riverdale actor to speak out about the lack of diversity on
the show.
Earlier this month Asha Bromfield, who previously played Pussycat Melody Valentine on Riverdale,
tweeted saying quote, “Don't even get me started with how Riverdale treated the Pussycats.
We had so much more to contribute than standing in the background and adding sass to a storyline.
I stand with you @VanessaMorgan.”
Rewind to last week when Betty Cooper herself, a.k.a. Lili Reinhart, went on Instagram Live
with Asha, who notably hasn’t been back on the show since season one.
At the time many fans were confused why the Pussycats were written off because even if
their band broke up, the girls would likely still go to school with the rest of the other
characters right?
Apparently not...
Asha spoke about how she agreed with Vanessa about being tired of playing a side-kick role.
She said, “I’m so much more, and Black people are so much more, than support systems.
It becomes toxic messaging when we are perpetuating this idea that there’s any less validity
to my own life than yours, that my sole purpose in this world is to support someone who looks
like you.
It’s so much bigger than Riverdale.
It’s a bigger conversation about how we are humanizing Black people on screen in all
capacities.”
And during that conversation, Lili said that she recently talked to the show’s creator,
Roberto, and he already had plans to make changes to the show in order to build upon
Black characters.
Lili even hinted at Roberto wanting to bring the Pussycats back to Riverdale in order to
quote "do right by their characters."
She said quote, “I talked to Roberto the other day and he said that he felt like he
wanted to bring the Pussycats back to the show to do right by their characters.
I think people are learning and growing and we have to give them a chance to make the
adjustments.”
Lili also went on to defend Roberto, which she did receive some criticism for given she’s
a white woman and some people thought it wasn’t really her place.
Roberto prides himself on, he wants Riverdale to be spearheading a movement of television
shows that takes what happening in the world right now and actually does something about
it.”
But regardless, while some fans are excited about the potential of seeing the Pussycats
back on Riverdale, we're not exactly sure what that would look like.
In the IG Live, Asha didn't seem like she knew about any of this when Lili brought it
up, so it doesn’t appear to be anything official yet.
Additionally, Ashleigh Murray who played Josie of Josie and the Pussycats, is no longer on
the show.
She left Riverdale for Katy Keene, so who knows how they would work around that.
Lili also didn’t say whether the Pussycats would return in the upcoming 5th season or
just down the road.
So obviously this leaves us all with questions... like would they randomly just show back up
at the end of senior year?
Where have they been these past few years?
Or would they maybe just join in after the 5 year time jump?
As of right now, we don’t have any answers yet, but regardless, fans have mixed feelings
about the Pussycats returning to Riverdale.
They are taking to Twitter to share their thoughts like this person who isn’t impressed
with the potential decision writing quote, “bringing the pussycats back now would just
feel unnatural.
like roberto randomly trying to prove that he’s not racist just because BLM brought
immense public backlash to riverdale.
not because he genuinely believes he should treat black characters properly.”
This fan agreed writing quote, “i’d only want to see the pussycats back on riverdale
if they actually have a purpose.
if they’re only there bc roberto feels bad, then he can keep it.”
And this fan asked “like we haven’t seen melody and val in so long like how is he gonna
explain them randomly popping back up?”
And then this person even wondered why Josie and the Pussycats didn’t get their own spin
off writing quote, “Why the hell did they throw Josie and some of her characters from
her old cartoon onto some random character’s show and not make Josie and the Pussycats
their own titled spinoff?”
But other fans think there could still be some positives to bringing the Pussycats back
to the show like this person who wrote quote, “I mean yes.... but he also has to bring
in those storylines and improve somehow and one of those ways is representation.
So like... yea it might feel unnatural, but dropping them like a top also felt unnatural.”
Another fan tweeted saying quote, “I would be excited to see the Pussycats back on Riverdale
and while it's definitely a little too late... it's better than keeping the show the way
it is.
The show needs some serious help anyway and the Pussycats were awesome in Season 1!”
But many others are just calling for Josie and the Pussycats to get their own show, which
we would also be very here for.
And if you want more on what went down between Vanessa Morgan and the show’s creator Roberto
over the past few weeks, click right over here for another Clevver video.
And please share all your thoughts about this down in the comments below, would you be excited
to see the Pussycats back on Riverdale or is it too late?
Let me know!
I’m your host Emile Ennis Jr., bye guys!