After a season full of guesses and theories about who Riverdale's masked serial killer could possibly be, the teen drama finally revealed the true identity of the Black Hood in Season 2's penultimate episode on Wednesday night. Or... it mostly did. Heading into the finale, part of the Black Hood mystery still remains unsolved, and one of the men behind the mask (err, hood) is spilling tons of secrets about the killer. Among the new tidbits, actor Lochlyn Munro revealed that for his part, Hal Cooper never wore the black hood on Riverdale.
Spoiler alert: Major spoilers from Riverdale Season 2 Episode 21 "Judgment Night" ahead! Apparently, that huge Black Hood reveal on Wednesday night's episode was more of a surprise to the actor playing the Black Hood than it was to the viewers. While talking with Entertainment Weekly, actor Lochlyn Munro said that he truly did not know that Hal Cooper was the Black Hood until he got the script for Episode 21. How could he not have known for the whole season, when Hal was hooded up and murdering half the town? Well, Munro revealed that he still has never worn the iconic black hood once. Actually, the person under the hood is just a stunt guy and not an actor on the show:
I’ve never worn the Hood. I’ve never put it on. It’s funny to me when people put my face next to the Hood and they’re like, “It’s Hal for sure! It’s exactly him.” I don’t know how people think that’s me, but that’s a stunt actor playing all of that stuff as the Hood.
The fact that it was never an actual Riverdale actor wearing that hood and just a random stunt person really flies in the face of so many fan theories about who the Black Hood could have been. As Lochlyn Munro pointed out, so many Riverdale fans were putting photos of his face next to the face of the Black Hood, trying to find physical similarities. Turns out, that plan of attack does not work at all, because the Black Hood is a face that none of the viewers have seen before, and probably will never see.
This new bit of information might be helpful to fans as we try to figure out who the second Black Hood running around Riverdale might be. Although Hal Cooper confessed to being the Black Hood that shot Fred Andrews and killed Miss Grundy, the Sugarman, and Midge Klemp, he also revealed that he was not the Black Hood that shot up the mayoral debate and clearly could not have been the Black Hood that was trying to kill Archie and Fred at the Andrews house at the same time.
Since we know that there is still a Black Hood out there, the theorizing is not over yet. And thanks to Lochlyn Munro's statement, we also know now that the physicality of the Black Hood is not going to provide us with any answers or clues. Rather, it is more important to consider potential motives or a possible connection to the Coopers when working out who this second Black Hood might be. It also seems clear that this new Black Hood is hyper-focused on killing Fred Andrews, since both of his known attacks have had Fred as his target.
Since Lochlyn Munro had no idea that Hal was the Black Hood this whole time, he admitted that he had his own theories about who might be under that hood. At the top of his suspect list?: Sheriff Keller. That was another popular theory, so you can't blame Munro for thinking it also.
Although Hal Cooper is in prison now, Lochlyn Munro did reveal that he will continue to be a big part of the series. Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa apparently confided in the actor that Hal has a whole different arc in Season 3. I have no idea what that could be, and I am kind of nervous to find out!
