Even though the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a spin-off of The CW’s Riverdale, they’re likely to be set in entirely different universes.
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One of Riverdale‘s stars, Betty actor Lili Reinhart, has discussed the upcoming horror spin-off and addressed whether the character, and any of the others from the series, will be appearing alongside Sabrina. Talking to Vulture, she explained that “I think Betty’s solely in the Riverdale world and it doesn’t make sense for a crossover. That’s why the decision was ultimately made to move to Netflix — to make these Riverdale and Sabrina shows completely separate universes.”
“I don’t really know what Roberto’s plan is for Sabrina or what aspect of the supernatural or magic will be used,” Reinhart continued. “I know that doesn’t exist in Riverdale. At least right now. So it wouldn’t make sense for those two worlds to collide. So, I’d say don’t expect Betty to be in that world.”
There’s plenty going on in the town of Riverdale without taking its inhabitants and thrusting them into meeting a young witch and her talking cat. Nonetheless, nothing is ever fully set in stone when it comes to comic book adaptations, and with the Arrowverse and MCU proving successful, a universe based on Archie Comics could well follow in their footsteps down the line.
In May last year, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, executive producer and Archie Comics Chief Creative Officer, discussed the possible inclusion of Sabrina into Riverdale. “The truth is, we did talk a lot about introducing Sabrina, but she’s such an important character and it’s such a big idea to introduce the supernatural into a natural world,” he explained. “We kind of realized that there was so much stuff to play that if we introduced Sabrina, it would kind of overshadow everything that we had planned.”
So while fans will likely be disappointed by the two shows standing on their own two feet, it’s been evident for quite some time that this would be the case.
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Debuting this year on Netflix, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina stars Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina Spellman, Michelle Gomez as Mary Wardwell/Madam Satan, Jaz Sinclair as Rosalind Walker, Chance Perdomo as Ambrose Spellman, and Lucy Davis as Hilda Spellman. Fans are still eagerly awaiting casting information for Zelda Spellman, as well as Sabrina’s boyfriend, Harvey Kinkle.