'There's no way to improve on that. You're only going to be disappointed.'
Based on the hype around The CW’s series Riverdale, we’re betting that the reboot of Sabrina The Teenage Witch is going to be pretty massive when it lands later this year. While we’re always going to have a super soft spot for the original series, we’d be lying if we said our interest wasn’t piqued by the premise. Instead of doing a straight up reboot, they’re opting for a creepy black magic twist called The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Melissa Joan Hart - a.k.a. the OG Sabrina the Teenage Witch - has weighed in.
If you can cast your mind way back to earlier this year, you might remember that Melissa was less than enthused by the revival news. (She told Entertainment Weekly that she was ‘indifferent, really’.) However, it seems like she’s changed her tune now that more details about the series have come out and PHEW.
It seems like she was initially worried about Netflix trying to completely recreate and follow her series, which TBH we wouldn't have been super on board with as well. Let’s be real, nobody will ever come close to Nick Bakay as feline shade queen Salem. But now that it’s come out that the series will be loosely based on a much darker horror-filled offshoot of the Sabrina comics, she’s come around to the idea.
‘I think it’s smart that they’re doing a completely different version,’ she told PEOPLE.
And sure, she may be biased, but she pointed out that nothing could ever really compete with the way her series ended back in 2003. You know, with Sabrina and Harvey driving off on a motorcycle into the sunset as Running by No Doubt blared in the background. (What a noughties dream.)
‘It kind of was the perfect send off,’ she said. ‘There’s no way to improve on that. You’re only going to be disappointed.’
She finished, ‘I think it’s so perfect that I wouldn’t want to touch it with anything.’
The lovely twee ending doesn’t look like it’ll ever make its way into The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina however, since even the early Netflix stills have shown it’s a MAJOR departure from the feel-good 90s series. It all has this super dark tone to it, which makes sense given that apparently it’ll be crossing over with another reboot channeling the same tone: Riverdale.
The cast has already been announced and if you’re a Mad Men fan, get excited. Kiernan Shipka, who played Don Draper’s daughter Sally, will be donning a pointy hat and broom as Sabrina in the new series. And her love interest Harvey Kinkle’s actor has also just been revealed - Ross Lynch from Austin & Ally.
The series is set to launch on Netflix this October 26, just in time for Halloween and it certainly seems like it’ll set the spooky mood.
We’re super excited for it, but if there isn’t a sassy talking cat - we’re out.
