'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' Is Officially Getting Picked Up by Netflix
Sabrina the Teenage Witch, that staple of ’90s TV, is officially coming back to the small screen, courtesy of Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Netflix. Sabrina was originally reported to be in the works as a possible Riverdale companion on The CW, but [Deadline is now reporting] that the show is instead heading straight to Netflix to air for 20 episodes over two seasons.
For Riverdale fans, there’s more good news: there will apparently be a crossover with the Riverdale team working to bring Sabrina back to the screen. Aguirre-Sacasa will be back to write the pilot as he did for Riverdale, and Lee Toland Krieger, who directed the first episode of Riverdale, is coming back to helm the first episode of Sabrina.
The name of the series is still up in the air—although it’s officially based on the graphic novel The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, not the ’90s cult show. Considering that that book is also part of the Archie Comics universe (which Aguirre-Sacasa presides over as chief creative officer), the theory about Betty’s mom in Riverdale being related to Sabrina is starting to look like it makes just a bit more sense, no? It also clears up why Sabrina was left out when other Archie Comics characters were always popping up in Riverdale.
However, there’s a twist to this Sabrina reboot: Remember how happy and bubbly the original show was? Not so much here. Just like the unexpectedly dark world of Riverdale, the Sabrina revival is “a dark drama in the horror genre,” according to Deadline. The report adds that, “tonally,” it’s more like Rosemary’s Baby and the Exorcist. Which is fine, because who needs sleep anyway?
There are more details on that, too—some of which we knew already, but it makes them no less exciting, should a reminder be needed: According to Deadline, Sabrina will be “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.” Existential crisis plus actual world-threatening crisis? Exhausting to be Sabrina, but it sounds like it’ll make for some riveting episodes.
Fingers crossed that the original date for the show to be released—sometime during the 2018-2019 season—doesn’t get pushed back too much further, because we’re not entirely certain we can wait.
In the meantime, we are pretty sure The CW is still happy—after all, it has its own Charmed reboot in the works, helped by Jane the Virgin Creator Jennie Snyder Urman.
Related Stories:
–A ‘Riverdale’ Spin-off About Sabrina the Teenage Witch Is in the Works
–This ‘Riverdale’ Theory Suggests Betty’s Mom Is a Witch—and Related to Sabrina Spellman