It’s official: Sabrina the Teenage Witch is making tracks for Riverdale — though perhaps not the way fans have been speculating.
The CW is developing a one-hour Riverdale spinoff titled The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, TVLine has learned. The project, being likened to Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist in its tonality, “reimagines the origin and adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch as a dark coming-of-age story that traffics in horror, the occult and, of course, witchcraft. … This adaptation finds Sabrina wrestling to reconcile her dual nature — half-witch, half-mortal — while standing against the evil forces that threaten her, her family and the daylight world humans inhabit.”
Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will pen the script, with Lee Toland Krieger on board to direct. Both will executive-produce, alongside Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Jon Goldwater.
While previewing Riverdale‘s upcoming second season at San Diego Comic-Con in July, Aguirre-Sacasa said, “We have been talking about one very prominent supernatural character that exists in the Archie universe, and that’s all we can say.” But when TVLine spoke with the stars in our Comic-Con suite, they had a bit more to say on the subject.
“This is a show that knows the camp it sells,” Cole Sprouse (aka Judghead) told TVLine in response to whether Sabrina — already an iconic Archie Comics character — could feasibly find a home in Riverdale. “We understand the genres we’re fitting into and how to appeal to that audience. But everyone in the audience takes it super seriously. … It becomes increasingly more difficult if you have, like, a cat that talks.”
Added Camila Mendes (aka Veronica), “We would need so much room in our storyline to add a character that absurd.”
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is being developed for the 2018–2019 TV season. Your thoughts on this (potentially) magical addition to The CW? Any casting suggestions for the titular spellcaster? Whatever’s on your mind, drop it in a comment below.
