Lena Dunham Will Give Archie Comics A Feminist Update

Adding to her list of accomplishments, Lena Dunham, the “Girls” writer, director and actor who has a book coming out at the end of the month, is now set to write a “feminist update” of the Archie Comics.

Speaking with Jimmy Kimmel to promote her memoir “Not That Kind of Girl,” Dunham said that although she loved reading Archie as a child, rereading it as an adult made her realize "that the values system of the Archies that I read as a child is slightly off from my own. It's like, two really hot, intelligent women fighting over a redhead." One of the main Archie Comics storylines involves the endless love triangle of redhead Archie and his two friends, Veronica and Betty.

The project, she said, was introduced to her by her friend, playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who is now chief creative officer of Archie Comic Publications. He’s been a part of incorporating characters from “Glee” into the comics, although “Afterlife With Archie,” which depicted Archie’s hometown invaded by zombies, did much better than the “Glee” update.

Dunham has described herself as the kind of Archie fan who goes to conventions and collects first edition comics, so when Aguirre-Sacasa heard about her obsession with Archie, he approached her to put her “spin” on it.

"I think it could use a little bit of a feminist update," she told Kimmel. “So I'm going to try to figure out a way to be true to the world of Riverdale, while also inserting some of my politics and beliefs and trying not to show breasts. ... The teaser I'll give is that reality TV has come to Riverdale."

When Kimmel asked if she could make Betty and Veronica lesbians, Dunham didn’t miss a beat.

“There’s already a whole sector of the Internet devoted to that,” she deadpanned. “Just Betty and Veronica going at it.”