Riverdale star Ashleigh Murray is reprising her role as Josie McCoy in The CW’s spinoff series pilot, Katy Keene. An adaptation of the Archie Comics, Riverdale follows iconic characters like Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge, and Jughead Jones during their years in high school. The show’s first season also introduced Josie and the Pussycats as a group of teenagers and wannabe professional musicians, led by their talented lead singer and songwriter, Miss McCoy.
While the Pussycats have since disbanded, Murray is still a recurring cast member on Riverdale. Most recently, her character’s been spending her days performing songs at Veronica’s speakeasy, Le Bonne Nuit, (theoretically) in-between her schoolwork and, occasionally, helping Archie and the gang solve whatever murder-mystery they’re caught up in each season. There’ve been reports of Josie getting her own animated series in the past, but now it seems that Murray may end up co-leading a live-action show of her own.
According to Deadline, Murray is reprising her role as Josie in The CW’s Riverdale spinoff pilot Katy Keene. The episode is being written by Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and writer/producer Michael Grassi, with Maggie Kiley (Riverdale, Chilling Aventures of Sabrina) directing. The show hasn’t been ordered to series just yet but, should that happen, Murray will exit Riverdale to play one of the four leads in Katy Keene, instead.
It’s exciting to hear that Murray may get to co-headline a Riverdale series of her own. As much fun as Josie’s musical numbers on the show are, Riverdale simply has too many characters and story threads running at once to devote that much time to its supporting players like Miss McCoy. Nevertheless, Murray has always made the most of her scenes on the series and proven that she could easily serve as one of the leads in a show of her own. It helps that Katy Keene, by the sound of it, will be a significantly different TV series than Riverdale. Where the latter is a noir crime-thriller spin on the Archie universe, Katy Keene is described as a drama about four young people (Josie and Katy included) trying to realize their dreams and creative ambitions in the big city.
Fortunately, if Katy Keene isn’t picked up to series, it won’t be a problem for Murray. The spinoff takes place years after Josie’s time in high school, when she’s a 20-something musician who’s since moved away from The Town With Pep. As such, CW president Mark Pedowitz has confirmed there won’t be a crossover episode where Katy Keene is introduced on Riverdale. Moreover, if the spinoff isn’t picked up, Murray will simply continue to play Josie for the rest of Riverdale’s third season, the already-ordered season 4, and however many seasons there are to come after that.
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We will bring you more details on Katy Keene as they become available.
Source: Deadline
