Riverdale: Who Should Play Sabrina the Teenage Witch?

With the end of Riverdale‘s first season coming soon, the first major pieces of season 2 casting news are already starting to emerge.

Mark Consuelos has joined the cast as Hiram Lodge, the husband of Hermione and father of Veronica who hadn’t yet been seen on-camera because he was arrested for embezzlement and fraud shortly before the season began.

They’ve also announced that they have begun the process of re-casting Reggie Mantle, the character previously played by Ross Butler, who can’t commit to being a series regular next year because of scheduling conflicts including the likely renewal of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, in which he is already a regular.

The big question mark remains Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. One of the most popular characters owned by Archie, Sabrina hasn’t yet appeared on Riverdale, even though there have been plenty of teases that she was likely to show up in the finale or season 2.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch is likely best known to readers under 40 for the long-running sitcom starring Melissa Joan Hart in the title role. Light, fluffy, silly, and bizarre, that show felt like it was ripped directly from the pages of the comics in many ways — something that’s rarely said about Riverdale.

The question of how Riverdale could support magic — and Sabrina Spellman — without totally changing its tone and identity is one that has already prompted a fair amount of speculation among fans and the press — but we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to look at a generation of young actresses and figure out some good candidiates to play Sabrina on Riverdale.

…And it seems pretty likely she’s coming. After all, Nana Blossom is a witch, and Greendale (Sabrina’s stomping grounds) has been identified as just over Sweetwater River from Riverdale.

All of this, of course, is mostly an intellectual exercise: Rappaport casting has done some spectacular work on Riverdale casting primarily unknowns in the roles of the Riverdale Gang, and you couldn’t blame them if that’s the direction they went with Sabrina.

That said, it’s got to be tempting to go for a more recognizable actor when you have a charcter with so much spinoff potential…!

LEANNE LAPP

Leanne Lapp might be a little old to play Sabrina relative to the rest of the Riverdale cast, but during iZombie‘s second season she was a huge asset to the show, and if they could either place her with the rest of the cast or make Sabrina a couple of years older, she would likely be great in the role.

This would also tie into a theory we’ve been kicking around that Cheryl Blossom is actually cousins with Sabrina, with their powers both originating with Nana Blossom, who was identified as having some kind of abilities in a previous episode. The flaw with that plan was always that a traditionally-blonde Sabrina (or even one who wasn’t blonde but was non-white, another pretty likely option) would not fit with the Blossom Family’s, ahem, look.

Lapp is a longshot, but we’d love to see her back in action on a weekly basis, so for the sake of this one theory about the nature of magic on Riverdale and for the sake of this one spot on the list, we’d love to see her.

…And yeah, as seen above, we also can see that she has the ability to pull off the white-haired look.

RACHEL CROW

One of the best parts of the truly excellent Netflix movie Deidre and Laney Rob a Train.

As Laney, Crow had the unenviable task of being the second lead to Ashleigh Murray’s complex and likable main character.

Along the way, she had to play angry, wounded, mischievous, and desperate — and it quickly became obvious that Crow is a special talent who was able to move through all of those personality traits and emotions seemingly effortlessly.

Almost all of the young actors in Deidre and Laney (the ones who had any significant screen time, anyway) delivered top-notch performances, and are young actors we want to see more from. Crow and Murray in particular.

VIOLETT BEANE

Yeah, she’s Jesse Quick on The Flash, but there’s nothing to say she can’t appear on two Berlanti-produced comic book shows at once.

Heck, lots of actors already do!

As The Flash of an alternate Earth, Jesse is often shunted off to the side until they need a big group fight, and Beane has shown the ability to play super light and fun (particularly when she’s joking around with Wally or Cisco) or super serious (usually when her dad’s in trouble, which is about 4 times a season).

She’s also only 20, which puts her right around the age where she could believably continue to be the same age as KJ Apa, Camilla Mendes and Lili Reinhart until all their characters are at least out of high school.

CHELSEA GILLIGAN

You might recognize this young actress from How I Met Your Mother and Friends With Benefits, but Gillian would be no stranger to The CW, having had a role on the short-lived Star-Crossed in 2014.

She’s got a broad range, the looks to be a star if the role was right, and a history at the network. Those are all things that serve her for Riverdale, but arguably the biggest asset she has is being proven but now really known, allowing her to come into the show and slip into the role without overshadowing the largely-untested cast of the series.

AnnaSophia Robb

The Bridge to Terabithia and Mercy Street actress would check a lot of boxes for the network: she’s old enough to have experience and a solid resume, but has a baby face and would look great alongside the rest of the cast.

The fact that she’s headlined some feature films would make her ideal for a role that’s ripe for a spinoff, and the fact the she physically looks like you expect Sabrina Spellman to look doesn’t hurt much, either.

Robb would be to this role what Anna Kendrick is to Squirrel Girl: maybe farfetched because she has other jobs and because she’s actually SO on-the-nose that the casting would feel a little boring…but because of those same qualities, it would make her appealing to producers and fans.