Um, ’Riverdale’s New Poster Really Makes It Look Like Season 5 Will Have Zombies

If you thought that Riverdale couldn't get any wilder after its days of organ-harvesting cults and hooded serial killers, think again. A new, horror-inspired poster hints that Riverdale Season 5 could have zombies. At this point, including members of the undead would be par for the course!

Season 4 of the hit CW series wrapped abruptly in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the cast and crew were finally able to begin production on Season 5 in September. On Tuesday, Nov. 24, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa took to Twitter to share a bone-chilling look at the show's hotly anticipated return.

His tweet included a Season 5 poster in which a creepy, zombie-like hand is reaching out from Sweetwater River, with the caption, "Nothing stays buried forever." Aguirre-Sacasa also included a ton of emojis, most notably a broken heart, a skull and crossbones, and an engagement ring. Since it was already confirmed that Season 5 will feature a seven-year time jump, does this mean that a beloved Riverdale couple's engagement could be tragically cut short by a zombie outbreak?

It remains to be seen, but that kind of storyline would mark a turning point for Riverdale, which has previously avoided the supernatural storylines that make up the world of its sister show, Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Still, the show has toyed with bringing back dead characters in the past — after all, Cheryl spent a good portion of Season 4 hanging out with the taxidermic corpse of her late brother Jason Blossom, who was found dead in Sweetwater River in the series premiere. She eventually gave Jason a proper funeral pyre on the same river, but given that Sweetwater River features heavily in both the new poster and one of the show's central tragedies, things aren't looking good for whoever is crawling out of it now.

Before viewers worry about the undead, though, it's worth remembering that Season 5 will actually kick off with a trio of episodes that were meant to wrap up Season 4 with the main characters' prom and high school graduation. Once Riverdale skips over the gang's college years, all bets are off — but, uh, fans have reason to worry about Archie. No matter what happens in Season 5, it's bound to be as wild as ever.

Riverdale returns on Wednesday, Jan. 2021.