The trailer for The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina just dropped. The upcoming Netflix series is the latest adaptation of the Archie comic book series Sabrina the Teenage Witch. If the trailer is anything to go by, the reboot is set to be a distinct departure in terms of genre from its most iconic incarnation, the ’90s sitcom starring Melissa Joan Hart. Here’s everything we know so far.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is in fact based on a 2014 comic book of the same name, that reimagined the teenage witch in a much darker setting. The comic book was published by Archer Horror, an imprint of Archie Comics.
Netflix ordered two seasons of the show which were filmed back to back in Vancouver earlier this year. The first season will have ten episodes and will premiere on October 26, just in time for Halloween.
Sabrina Spellman will be played by Kiernan Shipka. You may recognise the 18-year-old actor from Mad Men, where she played Sally Draper, Don’s daughter for seven seasons. On her casting, creator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said: “We’re all such huge fans of Kiernan’s work, that when we started talking about who this new incarnation of Sabrina could be, her name was on everyone’s wish list.”
Sabrina’s kooky aunts Hilda and Zelda will be back, this time played by Lucy Davis (The Office) and Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings franchise).
The Disney Channel’s Ross Lynch (Teen Beach Movie, Austin & Ally) will play Harvey Kinkle, Sabrina’s boyfriend, oblivious to her witchy powers.
The show has the same executive producers as Riverdale, but that is not where the connection ends. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was originally conceived as a companion show for Riverdale for The CW, but this plan was scrapped once Netflix became the distributor. Sabrina’s town Greendale exists in the Riverdale universe, and both are based on Archie comic books. Producer Jon Goldwater has said he would “love it if they could figure out a way to cross it over”, but right now the shows exist as two separate entities.
Salem, Sabrina’s sassy feline companion will also feature. Aguirre-Sacasa tweeted a picture of the black cat back in February.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet #Greendale’s latest resident. All hail, Salem! #sabrina, #netflix pic.twitter.com/XZ1dNPgvja
— RobertoAguirreSacasa (@WriterRAS) February 9, 2018
It’s certainly a far cry from the upbeat children’s sitcom of the nineties, and an even further departure from the last we saw of Melissa Joan Hart’s Sabrina, in her Funny or Die sketch, Sabrina & Salem: Together Again. Watch it here.
© 2018 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
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