Wow. It’s a big day for TV news. The latest is perhaps the saddest– Netflix has canceled ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’. Netflix ordered two seasons right off the bat in December 2017, after ‘Riverdale’ Season 1 had performed phenomenally well on the streaming platform. ‘Sabrina’ was originally developed by showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa as a spinoff of ‘Riverdale’ for The CW, but that network already had a reboot of ‘Charmed’ in the works and didn’t want to launch two new shows about witches. Netflix snapped it up and the show has seemingly been a solid hit. The two seasons were broken up into four “parts,” the first three of which are now available. Netflix has announced that the remaining eight will also be the last, and they will deliver “a spooky, sexy, and supernatural series finale.” It looks like the magic wore off.
In a statement, Aguirre-Sacasa said (via ComicBook.com):
“Working on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has been an incredible honor from Day One. The cast, beginning with Kiernan [Shipka] as everyone’s favorite teen witch, has been an absolute joy. I am beyond thankful to the crew, writers, editors, assistants, and everyone for pouring so much love into this dark dream of a show. I’m also grateful to our partners at Netflix, Warner Bros., Berlanti Television, and Archie Comics for letting us tell the story we wanted to tell, the way we wanted to tell it. We can’t wait for everyone to see Part Four.”
This cancellation follows that of The CW’s ‘Katy Keene’, another series based on an Archie comic book series, which only lasted for one season on The CW. Two weeks ago, ABC also passed on Aguirre-Sacasa’s pilot for ‘The Brides’, a ‘Dracula’-inspired drama.
Even though ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ was offered on Netflix and ‘Riverdale’ airs on The CW, they clearly existed in the same universe. ‘Sabrina’ is set in Greendale, Riverdale’s neighboring city and characters from both shows have crossed over into the other at times.
The final eight episodes of ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ are expected to arrive later this year.
Are you upset that there won’t be many more supernatural adventures of Sabrina Spellman and friends?