Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 5 Would Have Featured Riverdale Characters as Witches

The past year has brought some monumental updates in the world of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, beginning with the Netflix series being cancelled last summer and debuting its final episodes last December. Luckily, it seems like the spooky world of Sabrina Spellman is far from over, with Archie Comics recently announcing both the return of the original Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic and a new series directly tied to the television show. Fans have been hoping that the comics could provide an indication of where the Sabrina TV series would have gone next — and according to series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, it would have involved a major crossover with its sister series, The CW‘s Riverdale.

“When I got word we weren’t doing any additional parts or seasons we had already suspected four would be the last part, so we really wanted to go out with a bang,” Aguirre-Sacasa recently explained to Deadline. “We had Sabrina sacrifice herself to save her family, her friends, her town. On the other hand, we didn’t know definitely so we did end on a cliffhanger. I finished editing the finale at the beginning of the pandemic and pitched a possible part five to Netflix which would’ve produced Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and all the Riverdale characters as witches and there would’ve been a witch war between the witches in Greendale versus all of these witches and warlocks in Riverdale. Netflix was excited about that idea but due to the pandemic, it didn’t feel possible.”

Aguirre-Sacasa had previously teased this extent of this long-awaited Riverdale crossover, even sharing a piece of key art created by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic artist Robert Hack which read “the witches of Riverdale are coming.”

“If we were to ever do [a crossover], it would have to be more meaningful than a gimmick and really reveal character and really push the story forward,” Aguirre-Sacasa previously told ComicBook.com. “I absolutely think there is a universe where that happens, but you would want it to really resonate with that and really make it thoughtful and make it deep and special. There’s tons of Easter eggs, allusions to other Archie characters in Sabrina, and I think that’s a really fun element of it.”

So, while we might not get to see the Riverdale and Sabrina crossover of our dreams in live-action, it sounds like there’s hope that the story can eventually play out in either comic series.

“The scene that we shot and had to take out of the Netflix series with Zelda is the exact scene verbatim that’s in the first issue of The Occult World of Sabrina,” Aguirre-Sacasa shared elsewhere in the interview. “When we start that series, it’s exactly as it ended in the Netflix series with Sabrina and Nick in the sweet hereafter and her family and friends in Greendale are trying to live in a world without Sabrina. In fact, that’s the name of the first story arc: “World Without Sabrina.” We’ll see how her loved ones have been doing since Sabrina sacrificed herself. The first thing Zelda does is recruit a team of their family and friends to go into the underworld to bring Sabrina back to life.”

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #9 is set to be released on October 13th. The Occult World of Sabrina #1 will debut at a later date.