KJ Apa's mega January in the States

The former Shorty St star is featuring prominently on billboards from Sunset Boulevard to Times Square ahead of his anticipated lead role as Archie Andrews in the dark take on the famous 75-year-old comic in Riverdale, which debuts on the CW Network in America on January 26.

Expect his fame to grow rapidly as the series will then be launched globally.

“It’s definitely Archie, but a little darker, a little more complex and a little weirder than you might remember from the digest you bought at the supermarket. We’re saying it’s a little bit like Archie meets Twin Peaks,” executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Entertainment Weekly.

The young actor, who has kept his head down with work in Canada and Los Angeles, where he is based in Venice Beach, had a taste of what’s to come last Sunday night among the Golden Globe action at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills with his Riverdale co- stars Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart.

- SPY