Television

Why The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina Was Canceled — Here's What We Know

The witches of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Netflix
By BJ Colangelo/

After the rousing success of The CW's "Riverdale," and its subsequent fanbase growth once the seasons popped up on Netflix, fans were elated at the announcement of the Netflix original series, "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina." Inspired by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's popular comic book series of the same name (which itself is a spin-off of Aguirre-Sacasa's "Afterlife with Archie" series), the Netflix series is broken up into parts, and Netflix canceled the show after only four parts. Fans were devastated at the announcement, especially considering how popular the series was. Unfortunately, if "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" is to see another day, it more than likely won't be with Netflix. Here's why "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" was canceled.

Another Show Ruined By the Pandemic

Kiernan Shipka in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Netflix

If you're upset about the cancellation of "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," you have the COVID-19 pandemic to blame. In July of 2020, shows like "The Society" and "GLOW" that Netflix had already renewed for more seasons, were shut down due to the pandemic. "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" was unfortunately also one of them. Production on part 4 of the series wrapped in March of 2020, and despite the plans for a fifth part, Netflix wrapped the show before the creatives had a chance to complete the story. Ross Lynch, the actor who plays Sabrina's ex-boyfriend Harvey Kinkle, revealed to NME that there were at least 10 more episodes planned out pre-COVID.

Shortly after news of the cancellation broke, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa took to Twitter confirming that part 5 was already in the works, and that the story would have centered on a war between the witches.

Aguirre-Sacasa's tweet features an image in the style of the comic series featuring Sabrina, Harvey Kinkle, Nicolas Scratch, Theo Putnam, and Roz Walker, and the "Riverdale" group of Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper and Cheryl Blossom. The image reads, "The Witches of Riverdale are Coming," definitely implying a crossover between "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" and "Riverdale."

The Riverdale Crossover

Kiernan Shipka on the set of Riverdale Warner Bros. Twitter

While "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" was canceled before the show had a chance to end on its own terms, we learned last week that Sabrina Spellman was finally going to make her debut on Riverdale During a Q&A on The Dipp after the "Riverdale" season 5 finale, writer Evan Kyle revealed that Sabrina would be making an appearance in season 6, which was then confirmed by Aguirre-Sacasa with Entertainment Weekly. Sabrina is due to show up on "Riverdale" season 6, episode 4 titled "The Witching Hour(s)." The appearance was also confirmed on the Warner Bros. official Twitter. 

Read below for Entertainment Weekly's description of the episode.

Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) is performing a dangerous spell, one that may mean the difference between life and death for a beloved member of the Blossom family, according to a logline description of the episode. Luckily, she's getting a much needed assist from everybody's favorite 20-something witch, the iconic Sabrina Spellman (Shipka), visiting from Greendale in this years-in-the-making crossover.

Praise Satan.

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