RIVERDALE Writers Vow to ‘Honor’ Vanessa Morgan and Toni

After RIVERDALE’s Vanessa Morgan pointed out how she—and her character Toni—had been underutilized (while being held up as a token of representation) on The CW series, the show’s creator has promised to do better.

“We hear Vanessa. We love Vanessa. She’s right,” RIVERDALE showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa wrote on Twitter. “We’re sorry and we make the same promise to you that we did to her. We will do better to honor her and the character she plays. As well as all of our actors and characters of color. CHANGE is happening and will continue to happen. Riverdale will get bigger, not smaller. Riverdale will be part of the movement, not outside it. All of the Riverdale writers made a donation to @BLMLA, but we know where the work must happen for us. In the writers’ room.”

Morgan had posted her comments last month on Twitter, saying, she was “tired of how black people are portrayed in Media, tired of us being portrayed as thugs, dangerous or angry scary people. Tired of us also being used as side kick non dimensional characters to our white leads. Or only used in the ads for diversity but not actually in the show. It starts with the media. I’m not being [quiet] anymore.”

She also followed up by saying she was “the only black series regular but also paid the least.”

Morgan joined the series in season 2, and her Toni quickly became a fan-favorite when she was paired up with Madelaine Petsch’s Cheryl.

#hearvanessamorgan @BLMLA #riverdale ❤️ pic.twitter.com/gnlI8Dh9yz

— RobertoAguirreSacasa (@WriterRAS) June 5, 2020

I’m not being Quite anymore. ✊🏽 #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/JXgJic4mrR

— Vanessa Morgan (@VanessaMorgan) May 31, 2020

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