Skeet Ulrich Is Not Returning to ‘Riverdale’ for the Final Season

All apologies to fans of actor Skeet Ulrich, his Riverdale character FP Jones, and shippers of the relationship Falice, aka FP and Alice (Mädchen Amick), but sadly, Ulrich will not be returning to The CW series for the final season. Though interviews with Ulrich around other projects made it seem like his return to the character he played for five seasons would be a possibility, according to Amick it’s not happening.

“We have to close the book on that,” Amick told Decider during a longer interview about her return to the directing chair on Riverdale, referring to the Falice relationship. “He was invited back… But then it fell through. I don’t know the particulars on it. But he ended up not coming on board.”

Ulrich was first introduced as FP Jones in the premiere season of the series, before being promoted to full-time cast member in Season 2. Though initially he was the in-prison, gang leader father of Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), his character grew to become the sheriff of Riverdale, and the live-in lover of Alice Smith (formerly Cooper), as well as de facto father to the multiple children they both have. Ulrich had planned on leaving the series at the end of Season 4, but due to COVID shutting down the show, he briefly returned for the first three episodes of Season 5 to wrap up his arc, leaving town to take care of his daughter with a fleeting (and romantic) kiss goodbye to Alice.

The show has since moved on from the romance, but fans haven’t, and were holding out hope that Ulrich could return in the final season. There have even been mentions of FP: in the rebooted timeline of the 1950s, Jughead is living on his own in a train car because his father had to get out of town thanks to an unspecified crime. And, as it turns out, this early season tease seems to have been part of a plan to get FP back, something that now will never happen as the show wrapped production on the series finale this past Monday (June 26).

“We were sort of hoping that everybody would come through, and I think that was [showrunner] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa]’s intention was to have everybody back that he could in that last season,” Amick continued. “There was an episode that was dedicated to his character, but it didn’t happen. So you know, Falice fans are left wanting something that just never happened.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.