If there’s one thing that fans of both The CW‘s Riverdale and Netflix‘s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina want, it’s a crossover between the two “Archieverse” shows and while Archie and his friends have yet to actually cross paths with Sabrina Spellman and her friends, both shows have had little hints and nods towards each other with Riverdale‘s latest Sabrina moment coming in this week’s midseason premiere, “Varsity Blues”. And this time around, it’s the first actual character appearance, albeit a relatively minor one.
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Just a quick note: there are some minor spoilers for season three of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina below.
In “Varsity Blues,” the Riverdale High Bulldogs are set to take on the Stonewall Prep Stallions for the high school football championship, but as game day approaches, Betty (Lili Reinhart) gets turned onto the idea that Stonewall Prep’s undefeated record isn’t the result of skill on the football field; it’s the result of cheating and violence with the Stonewall Prep team “playing to hurt” as opposed to playing to win. Hot on the trail of this story, Betty seeks out players from other teams who were injured in games against Stonewall and interviews them, including players from Centerville, Seaside, and Greendale.
It’s that Greendale character that fans might have noticed was particularly familiar. That’s right, Billy Marlin (Ty Wood) was the Baxter High Ravens player who got hurt in a game against Stonewall Prep. While Billy isn’t a huge character in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, he’s appeared in eight episodes of seasons one and two first as an antagonist who bullied Theo Putnam (Lachlan Watson) but who eventually changed his ways.
As we noted, this is the first time an actual Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has appeared on Riverdale, but it’s not the first time there’s been a bit of character swapping between the two shows. Back during the first season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Riverdale‘s Ben Button (Moses Thiessen) appeared as a food delivery boy delivering dinner to the not-what-she-seemed Miss Wardwell (Michelle Gomez).
Billy Marlin’s appearance on Riverdale this week also wasn’t the only Riverdale/Sabrina “crossover” moment, either. In the third episode of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina‘s third season – which debuted on Friday – Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) makes the trek to Riverdale so that she can one of the maple trees owned by the Blossom family in order to collect King Herod’s crown. When it comes to a real crossover of substance that would see Archie (KJ Apa) and friends introduced to Sabrina and her friends, though, that’s something that will only happen if the narrative demands it.
“Well honestly, it’s funny, I’m a fan of all of this and I love crossover episodes, but I think you hit the nail on the head,” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa shared with ComicBook.com when discussing the limited episode orders of Sabrina possibly preventing a crossover. “If we were to ever do it, it would have to be more meaningful than a gimmick and really reveal character and really push the story forward. 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. But no, you’re right, it would have to be more than just a gimmick.”
Did you catch the “crossover” moment on this week’s Riverdale? Let us know in the comments below.
Season three of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is now streaming on Netflix. Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
