dove cameron

In case you’ve been living under a rock… or aren’t a teenage girl, Dove Cameron has become the Queen of Disney over the past couple of years, starring in the hit tween sitcom ‘Liv and Maddie’ (playing both titular identical twins) and the phenomenally successful ‘Descendants’ movies as Mal, the daughter of baddie Maleficent.  But the thing about Disney kids is they always grow up and it looks as though Cameron, at the age of 21, may be leaving the Disney Channel’s Auradon behind and moving to The CW’s ‘Riverdale’.  In an Instagram post, she teased she may be taking on another witchy role:

 

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It looks like Cameron may go from playing one spell-caster to another, taking on the role of Sabrina Spellman, better known as Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  It’s a fitting move, as Melissa Joan Hart previously played the character on the hit 90s sitcom, a staple on ABC’s T.G.I.F. lineup.  Prior to that, Hart gained fame on another juvenile series, Nickelodeon’s ‘Clarissa Explains It All’.

However, Hart’s ‘Sabrina’ was a light comedy.  ‘Riverdale’ has become a smash with its target audience by taking the squeaky clean Archie Comics characters and placing them in a dark, twisted ‘Twin Peaks’-inspired reality full of murder, cover ups, incest and one student-teacher tryst.  And like ‘Twin Peaks’, ‘Riverdale’ may delve into the supernatural and surreal.

Camila Mendes, who plays Veronica Lodge on the series stated:

“Expect things to get even darker. In Season One, we were testing the waters, and in Season Two, we’re really diving in. We’ve fully submerged ourselves into the thriller genre, and the obstacles that our characters will face are terrifying.”

‘Riverdale’ creator and executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who is also Archie Comics’ Chief Creative Officer, previously hinted:

“We are going to continue exploring the idea of the supernatural being on the fringes of Riverdale, and that might lead up to Sabrina’s arrival or that might just be to make it more like Twin Peaks and the way they dealt with the supernatural.”

Up ’til now, for all its frothy sensationalism, ‘Riverdale’ has remained grounded in reality.  Introducing magic would really take the show in a different direction, which may jar regular viewers.  Of course, they could downplay the mystical by making Sabrina more of a goth-type character who might just be attuned to ideas outside the norm.

Over the past several years, Archie Comics have evolved away from the simple cartoonish style they’re famous for, embracing the modern format of comic book storytelling, with more unique art and complex multi-issue storylines.  Aguirre-Sacasa, it should be noted, writes the ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’, one of the first series to adopt this mature style.  He also created and writes ‘Afterlife With Archie’ which depicts the citizens of Riverdale during a zombie apocalypse.

Cameron’s Instagram post is a departure, as she typically sticks to posting glam selfies and fashion shots.  There is no real caption beyond the phone emoji, which could either hint that she has received a phone call about playing Sabrina or it could mean “Call me.”

If you check out her pics, you’ll see that Cameron doesn’t actually have purple hair, but striking platinum blonde, which would make her a visual match for Sabrina.  And her ‘Descendants’ role, Mal is a bad girl struggling to be good, which could be a suitable approach to introducing the witch on ‘Riverdale’.

Cameron has branched out to non-Disney parts, earning praise for her turn as mean girl Amber Von Tussle on NBC’s ‘Hairspray Live!’ and appearing in a live stage performance of ‘Mama Mia!’  In another comic book role, she voiced Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen on ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’.

Are you a fan of ‘Riverdale’?  How do you feel about the possibility of introducing a supernatural element to the show?