Riverdale season 5 is officially premiering this January on The CW after encountering a few setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The teen drama will wrap up the remaining stories in the fourth installment before proceeding to the next chapter. In the seven-year time jump, new characters are coming.

One of the new characters in the said time jump is Veronica Lodge's (Camilla Mendes) husband. It has been confirmed that former Broadchurch star Chris Mason joins Riverdale season 5 as Chad Gekko. He's going to have a major role, described as Veronica's "controlling and jealous husband."

Chad, who is set to appear in episode 4, is working on Wall Street and deemed as an "Alpha dog." He's threatened by his wife's life in Riverdale, especially with Veronica's friendship with her ex-boyfriend, Archie Andrews (KJ Apa). Considering the time jump, there are now adults and living their lives elsewhere.

At the moment, only a few details were known about Chad -- including how he met Veronica and how they end up getting married. It remains to be seen whether or not they're going to be endgame. Some events might happen that could potentially threaten their marriage.

Meanwhile, the first few episodes of Riverdale season 5 centers around the unaired episodes in season 4, including the prom and graduation. At first, these celebrations seem to be memorable and romantic, but things eventually go sideways.

The previously-released clip teased what's the story would look like, particularly the horrifying videotapes. The Core Four -- Veronica, Archie, Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), and Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) -- have been getting videotapes.

The clip featured masked versions of them doing something disturbing and violent. The early run of Riverdale season 5 will focus on this storyline. In addition, Veronica learned that something happened between Archie and Betty and this could tear the Core Four apart.

Beyond that, someone from the past is likely coming back. Although unknown, the poster showed a zombie-like hand emerging from the grave. There are speculations that a dead character will be resurrected, but the series hasn't incorporated supernatural elements.

Perhaps, this person is someone who was long presumed dead -- only to show up alive later on. Previous theories suggested that Jason Blossom (Trevor Stines) could make an appearance. But, others suspected it to be Penny Peabody (Brit Morgan) or Hal Cooper (Lochlyn Munro).

Riverdale season 5 starts dropping its new episodes starting on Wednesday, January 20, on The CW.