Riverdale star Cole Sprouse, 27, is forever grateful for his Disney roots, but it’s not something he wants to revisit anytime soon. Cole and his twin brother, Dylan Sprouse, achieved household name fame in 2005 when they starred in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody in the titular roles. Now that reboots and remakes are the trend du jour, the question is: will they return to The Tipton Hotel for one last zany adventure? Sorry, folks; it’s just not happening, Cole said in an interview with our sister outlet, Variety. The Suite Life, and its spinoff, The Suite Life on Deck, were “the golden ticket,” Cole said.
“At the time, being the leads of a sitcom as kids was the most stable job we could think about in the industry. In terms of technical acting, it’s only 30 minutes long,” he added. “My brother and I were really thankful for it.” Cole added that he and Dylan definitely weighed the option, though, while discussing if they would ever work together as adults. “The whole kitschy twin thing, I don’t think that really sells anymore,” he explained. “It’s about feeling passionate for acting again. If it’s a cool project, I don’t have a problem with that.”
Cole had actually quit acting altogether before landing the role of Jughead Jones on the CW’s Riverdale. After The Suite Life on Deck ended in 2011, he attended New York University with Dylan, and then went into archaeology. “I was bagging artifacts. And I got a call from my manager, who begged me to come back and audition for pilot season,” Cole told Variety. He let his manager know: “If I don’t book anything, then I’m not going to do this anymore. And I gave her my word that if I did book something, I’d see it through. I booked Riverdale, and it ended up tugging me back.”
That audition went much differently than his manager thought it would. He was there to audition for Archie, but asked to read for Jughead instead! “I said this is a little bit more my style. And I just kind of read it like Rod Serling,” — the narrator of The Twilight Zone.