Sabrina TV Show to Take More Horrific Direction

The CW, pleased with the delayed viewing figures and growing fan base for Riverdale, is looking to create a companion TV show based around Sabrina the teenage witch, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Riverdale showrunner (and Archie Comics Chief Creative Officer) Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and producer Greg Berlanti are developing The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, “a dark coming-of-age tale that traffics in horror, the occult and witchcraft… in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist“.

So, a big change from the family-friendly sitcom version starring Melissa Joan Hart that ran for seven years and some spinoff TV movies. Ties right in with the currently (spottily) running comic version, though, which has featured bloody human sacrifice and themes of incest, and a darker take better matches the tone Riverdale has taken. The show, written by Aguirre-Sacasa (who also writes the comic) potentially for the 2018 TV season, “finds Sabrina wrestling 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.”

Aguirre-Sacasa is also teasing how many more Archie Comics characters could be adapted, with a particular mention of their superheroes.