So long, Archie-verse? The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which was originally being developed at CW as a companion series to their hit teen soap Riverdale, is headed straight-to-series at Netflix with a two-season, 20-episode order.
Of course, it’s possible there could be some wheeling and dealing to make a little shared universe magic happen despite the network shakeup since the now-untitled Sabrina the Teenage Witch project comes from the same creative team behind Riverdale. Archie Comics chief creative officer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will serve as writer and executive producer. Riverdale director Lee Toland Krieger, who helmed Riverdale’s pilot and Season 1 finale among other episodes, will direct and executive produce. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Jon Goldwater will executive produce.
Deadline reports that Netflix swooped in with a deal the Sabrina team couldn’t refuse, a two-season pickup, after Riverdale success on the streaming platform. The CW’s dark and delicious spin on Archie comics has been a hit on Netflix, something that has almost certainly been a factor in Riverdale’s impressive Sophomore season ratings (it’s out-performing the first season by about fifty percent). Additionally, the move to Netflix allows WBTV to maintain full ownership of the Sabrina, unlike the CW series, which are co-produced with CBS TV Studios.
A darker spin on the source material than the popular 1990s Sabrina the Teenage Witch series starring Melissa Joan Hart, the new incarnation of Sabrina was described as a mix of The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby that reimagines Sabrina’s origin story as a coming-of-age drama set in the realm of horror and witchcraft and finds Sabrina struggling to reconcile her dual nature as half-witch, half-mortal as evil forces threaten her, her family and the daylight world humans inhabit. No release date is set for the series yet.
via Collider
I am so excited that it was picked up by Netflix. That means we can binge watch the whole season!
Oh yes!!!