Archie Comics’s Sabrina Casts A Netflix Spell; Gets Two Season Commitment

 

Greendale is moving a lot further away from Riverdale.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Greg Berlanti-produced series based on Archie Comics’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch is moving from The CW to Netflix with a two-season commitment; comprising a twenty-episode order. An impressive show of confidence in Berlanti, his team and what Riverdale has accomplished for the Archie characters in just a year and half on television.
The Sabrina series was first announced in September as a companion to Riverdale. Developed by Berlanti and Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, the project was said to be based on Aguirre-Sacasa’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic book series. The title, published by Archie Comics,  reframed the Teenage Witch in a 1960s-style monster movie universe. It features spooky houses, witch covens, swamp hags and other frightful creatures in a tone reminiscent of Hammer horror movies and low-budget drive-in movie productions. A description of Sabrina at the time said she would wrestle to “reconcile her dual nature as a half-witch, half-mortal while fighting the evil forces that threaten her, her family and the daylight world humans inhabit.” The series was also said to be a “companion” series as opposed to a straight spin-off, suggesting it might retain its 1960s setting.
Nevertheless, Sabrina’s hometown of Greendale soon debuted in Riverdale‘s second season and even featured in this week’s episode as a place Riverdale kids should not be in after midnight. As Penny put it, “it gets strange” there. It is now unclear if the two shows will be connected in anyway other than the use of Greendale as a location.
Netflix and Berlanti are moving quick on the as-of-yet unnamed series, with a writers room opening next week and the search for Sabrina taking on a fevered pitch. THR sources tell the site production is expected to begin in February on the first ten-episode season.