The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina gets October release date
David Farnor | On 29, Jul 2018
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will premiere this October, Netflix has confirmed.
First lined up at The CW as a spin-off from Riverdale, the show is based on Roberto Aguirre Sacasa’s graphic novel of the same name. That title is a clue to the show’s tone, which veers away from the Nickelodeon series of the 1990s and towards a darker reimagining that traffics in horror, the occult and, of course, witchcraft. Tonally in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, it 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.
Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka will play Sabrina, with a cast that includes Richard Coyle as Father Blackwood, High Priest of the Church of Night and Dean of the Academy of the Unseen Arts, and Michelle Gomez as an evil high school teacher. Other cast members include Ross Lynch as Sabrina’s love interest, Harvey Kinkle, and Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis as her aunts, Hilda and Zelda.
While we still haven’t had a proper trailer for the programme yet, Netflix has now finally given us an idea of when we can see the series: it will premiere on Friday 26th October, Netflix announced this weekend, with all 10 episodes arriving at once. That sees it arrive just in time for Halloween viewing, and also hot on the heels of Riverdale. With Season 3 airing weekly from Thursday 11th October on Netflix UK, that means Sabrina will arrive just after the third episode of the new season. While an explicit crossover between them is not on the cards (for this first season, at least), whether any fortuitous pay-off will emerge from that timing is yet to be seen. On the plus side, it’s not much longer to wait and find out.
The date was announced at Netflix’s TCA press tour event, with a host of Sabrina lookalikes lining up to spell out the date on their high school jackets. Watch this space for a trailer very soon.
Time for CAOS. Oct 26. pic.twitter.com/uLgXFMLX0t
— Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (@sabrinanetflix) July 29, 2018
Riverdale’s Sabrina spin-off series is coming to Netflix
2nd December 2017
Step aside, Riverdale: Sabrina the Teenage Witch is leaving The CW and coming to Netflix.
The untitled series, which is based on the Archie Comics character, has long been anticipated by fans of Riverdale, The CW’s update of Archie for the modern age. With showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa not shying away from the darker side of the town, rumour of a Sabrina cameo and spin-off have been in the works ever since Riverdale first graces our screens last year – leading to The CW officially developing a companion show earlier this year.
Now, after Netflix’s deal with The CW to air Riverdale outside of the USA, Sabrina has magicked herself to a whole new home on the streaming giant. The untitled series is based on the graphic novel The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and imagines 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. Described as “tonally in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist”, the 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. In other words, this will be nothing like the Sabrina the Teenage Witch series starring Melissa Joan Hart in the 1990s.
How much the show will be based in the same universe as Riverdale, given they are now on different networks, is not yet clear, but with Warner Bros. TV owning the franchise (Riverdale is a co-production with CBS) and Aguirre-Sacasa staying on as EP, anything’s possible. Lee Toland Krieger, who has helmed several episodes of Riverdale, will direct and also exec-produce.
Not up to speed with Riverdale? Catch up with our weekly reviews of Season 2 here.