‘Riverdale’ Season 5 Ends With Shocker: Mark Consuelos Leaving Series
On Wednesday, Riverdale ended Season 5 with a shocker. Mark Consuelos, who portrays Hiram Lodge is leaving the series. What does he have to say about playing the cruelest man in town?
There are spoilers, so here is your warning.
Mark Consuelos Leaves Riverdale
After four seasons of playing the Riverdale bad guy, Hiram Lodge, Mark Consuelos is leaving The CW series. According to Deadline, he was in his final episode as a series regular.
The show’s executive producer and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had nothing but praise for the former All My Children star.
“So tonight’s episode is Mark’s swan song playing our hunky villain Hiram Lodge on Riverdale after four insane, glorious years. From the moment Mark joined us, he was up for literally anything, a hundred percent committed to making Archie’s life a living hell. And what’s funny is, Mark couldn’t be more different from Hiram. A classy pro and the sweetest guy, always looking out for everyone.”
While Consuelos may have ended four seasons as a series regular, Aguirre-Sacasa hinted that perhaps Hiram Lodge will be back in some capacity, in the future. “We wish Mark the best and hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Hiram Lodge.”
Mark Consuelos Says Goodbye
For Mark Consuelos, leaving Riverdale was like leaving family. The actor was very gracious in thanking people, starting with their showrunner. “First and foremost, I would like to thank Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa for this incredible opportunity.”
Next, Mark addressed playing television’s bad guy. “Never before has playing a character that was so bad, felt so good. Huge thanks to the Riverdale fandom, to the brilliant crew and amazing cast, whom I consider dear friends and family.”
He has not yet shared what he will be doing next. However, it must be nice for him to not be working across the country from his wife, Kelly Ripa, and their children.
Riverdale Showrunner Reveals The Fate Hiram Almost Got
For those fans who wanted to see Hiram Lodge get payback, there were discussions about a more fatal ending. According to another Deadline interview with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Hiram would not have left town so easily.
They actually looked to Shakespeare to figure out what to do. He asked, “What are the punishments in Shakespeare’s plays?” There are usually two options: Exile or execution. They chose exile, and Mark Consuelos had texted the showrunner his happiness at his departure.
But if they killed Hiram off, how would the storyline go? Aguirre-Sacasa shared his insight.
“The other thing we considered was killing Hiram off. And we had fun imagining the ways that might happen. The two versions of Hiram’s death we were seriously entertaining late into the breaking of the episode were that Archie would take Hiram into the woods…and only Archie would come back, like something out of The Sopranos. And the strong implication (never confirmed) would be that Archie had murdered Hiram and buried his body somewhere in Swedlow Swamp. The other thing we talked about is that Veronica and Archie would take Hiram to one of his construction sites and entomb him in wet cement in the building’s foundation. In the end, though, our love of Mark Consuelos and our hope that he’ll always be a part of Riverdale won out…by a very narrow margin.”
In the end, exile won because they hope to see Mark Consuelos return one day. What did you think of how Hiram Lodge departed? Would you have wanted execution over exile?
Riverdale Season 6 premieres on Tuesday, November 16.
