The Real Reason Skeet Ulrich Left Riverdale After Season 4

The CW's Riverdale is a teen drama to end all teen dramas. Not only is the show based on characters from legendary teen sensation Archie Comics, it also incorporates many tropes from various high school-centric TV shows and movies of decades past. One of the best ways it does this is through its casting. Many of the adults on the show are played by former teen stars, including Molly Ringwald, Mädchen Amick, the late Luke Perry, and Skeet Ulrich.

Ulrich, who is best known for his terrifying performance as teen psychopath Billy Loomis in Scream, plays FP Jones, father of Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse). FP is the leader of the Southside Serpents, one of the gangs that call Riverdale home. Of course, Riverdale being Riverdale, Jones eventually quits the gang and becomes sheriff of the town. In the midst of the many murder-for-hire plots and gang wars he's involved in, FP also spends plenty of his time on the show working out his issues with his estranged son.

In the midst of the show's fourth season, Ulrich announced that he would be hanging up his sheriff's badge and Southside Serpents jacket (via TVLine). At the time, he gave a vague answer for his departure, but recently, he got more candid about the real reason why he left Riverdale ahead of its fifth season.

When Ulrich first announced that he was leaving Riverdale in February 2020, the actor released the following statement, as reported by TVLine: "I'm incredibly grateful for the friendships I've made on Riverdale, and I will miss seeing everyone on a daily basis... But I've decided that it's time for me to move on to explore other creative opportunities."

A few months after that announcement, the actor gave a little more background to his decision. While doing an Instagram Live video with his girlfriend, Australian model Megan Blake Irwin, Ulrich was asked by a fan about his decision to leave the show. Instead of giving a PR friendly answer, the actor gave the truth (via AltPress): "I'm leaving Riverdale because I got bored creatively. How's that? That's the most honest answer."

It may not be what fans want to hear, but at least it sheds some light on his decision. While it seems that Ulrich is leaving the show of his own accord, creator and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa recently revealed some details about Riverdale's upcoming fifth season that could explain why now is a particularly good time for the actor to make his departure.

Due to the industry-wide shutdown on TV and film productions, season 4 of Riverdale ended abruptly, three episodes short of where it was meant to. In a statement to TVLine, Aguirre-Sacasa clarified that when the show returned for season 5, it would finish up where season 4 left off. These final three episodes will take the characters to the end of their high school years, and then after that, the showrunner announced that there will be a time jump.

Aguirre-Sacasa told Seventeen that the time jump the show is planning will be significant: "[Y]ou know, to me high school was better than college. And since all of our characters would be going to different colleges, my instinct has been to leapfrog over four years, and kind of pick up with everyone there."

Because we'll be rejoining the show at least four years in the future, it's natural that some of the supporting characters, such as FP Jones, will fall away. Another Riverdale parent, Marisol Nichols' Hermoine Lodge, is also planning on exiting the show after the time jump. However, Aguirre-Sacasa assured TV Guide that both characters would still be featured in the three wrap-up episodes left to be aired from season 4, and that the door is open for them to return in the future.

Now that Ulrich has a Riverdale-sized hole in his filming schedule, the actor has taken on some new projects. If you're a Quibi subscriber, you can catch the actor in one of the streaming services' bite-sized shows. He co-stars alongside Laurence Fishburne in #FreeRayShawn, about an Iraq war veteran who is trapped in his house after an encounter with the police turns violent.

Later this year, the actor will appear in the Tom Hanks-starring sci-fi film Bios. In the film, Hanks plays the last man alive on earth. However, considering Ulrich has been cast in an unnamed role alongside with X-Men: First Class actor Caleb Landry Jones and Orange Is the New Black's Samira Wiley, we're guessing Hanks' character discovers he's not so alone after all. The film is currently slated for release on October 2nd, 2020 (via The Hollywood Reporter).

We're sure Riverdale fans are heartbroken to say goodbye to their favorite gang leader-turned-sheriff, but they'll have plenty of opportunities to watch Skeet Ulrich try on different roles now that he's saying goodbye to the show.