Who plays Charles Smith on Riverdale? Wyatt Nash joins cast as Betty and Jughead's brother

16 May 2019, 15:29

By Katie Louise Smith

The real Charles Smith, played by Wyatt Nash, was finally introduced in the Riverdale season 3 finale as part of the big Farm twist.

For the past three seasons, Riverdale has created several unresolved mysteries that have left us screaming into the void. In the season 3 finale, they answered most of them (Black Hood! Gargoyle King! Chic! Jason!) and finally introduced us to one of the biggest mysteries of all: Charles Smith, the presumed dead son of Alice Cooper Smith and FP Jones.

The truth behind Charles Smith's identity and whereabouts has been up in the air since Chic rolled into town with a fake identity and an unexplained mission to torment the Cooper family in season 2. Was he dead? Was he alive? Who knows!

Riverdale season 4: news, spoilers, release date, cast, trailers and everything you need to know

After a brief period of suspecting every attractive blond male in their mid-twenties was Charles, the man himself finally rolled into town in the season 3 finale as part of the big twist at The Farm - leaving everyone, including Betty and Jughead, absolutely shook. Yes friends, the Falice love child has arrived and he's stunning.

Charles, played by Wyatt Nash, will be making a few appearances in season 4 as he continues to investigate The Farm. Here's everything you need to know:

Who plays Charles Smith on Riverdale?

Charles is played by 30-year-old American actor Wyatt Nash. You may recognise him from season 6, episode 2 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine as young Hitchcock, from Dear White People (as Kurt Fletcher) or from Pretty Little Liars where he played the role of Jenna's friend Nigel Wright. He's appeared in a ton of Hallmark movies and was also a contestant on Survivor back in 2011 (where he appeared as Matt Elrod, his real name.)

And yes, he's on Instagram. You can find him at @heywyattnash.

View this post on Instagram

Guess who is coming to Riverdale? Thanks so much for the warm reception!

A post shared by Wyatt Nash (@heywyattnash) on May 15, 2019 at 9:12pm PDT

Who is Charles Smith?

I'M GLAD YOU ASKED. Charles' appearance has been a looooong time coming for those of us who have been watching since season 1. At the end of the first season, it was revealed that Alice Smith gave birth to a son when she was in high school.

Back in 1992 (as seen in the flashback episode), Alice ends up pregnant with FP's baby. Following the events of Ascension Night - and in order to get out of the South Side - she then starts dating Hal. He finds out she's preggo, they have a fight at Homecoming and then he pressures her into getting an abortion, which she refuses. She then goes to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and gives birth to Charles.

Alice was under the impression that Charles would be adopted but it turns out that he stayed at the Sisters until he was 18 - or so that's what we've been told.

25 years later (the timeline is a mess but this is what we're going with...), Chic arrives on the scene. He pretends to be Charles, scams the entire Cooper family and then proceeds to tell Alice that the real Charles is dead. He allegedly befriended him and then murdered him. He also lied about Charles overdosing on Jingle Jingle too. Alice - and FP, Betty and Jug - were all under the impression that Charles was dead.

But with Charles' appearance in the season 3 finale, most of Chic's story is probably a lie. It turns out that Charles is actually an FBI agent who has been investigating The Farm for a while. At some point between the end of season 2 and start of season 3, Alice met Charles and began working undercover for him at The Farm.

For those that are familiar with the comics, it'll be a nice surprise to see that the show has stuck to the original source material... kind of. In the comics, Charles Cooper (whose nickname is Chic) is, you guessed it, an FBI agent. According to his character description, "he has strawberry blonde hair and is a prankster."

Of course, in the comics, his father is Hal Cooper but that is CANCELLED! We don't KNOW him! As already explained, FP Jones is Charles' real father on the show. (And yes, that means that Betty and Jughead share a half-brother but they are not related. It's not incest. Ok? Thanks!)

Teasing what's ahead for Charles on the show, show runner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told ET Online that his arrival will benefit Betty and see her form a great familial relationship with him.

"Betty hasn't had a great relationship with a lot of her family members -- her father, her mother, her sister -- and we thought, "Well, what if we brought in someone and Betty could relate to him and have a good relationship with him?” So that’s kind of what we’re looking forward to exploring."

He'll also no doubt be instrumental in finding out where Alice, Polly and Fangs are following The Farm's "ascension" at the end of the season.

FP the Sheriff, Alice the undercover FBI informant, Charles the FBI agent, Betty the investigator and Jughead the sleuth? We love one (1) mystery solving blended family. (Oh and like, JB and Polly too.)