(Warning: This post contains spoilers for “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” Season 3 through the finale.)
If you’ve already binged your way through the third season of of “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” — like us — and need to know what’s in store for Season 4, never fear, because we have all the details on, well, what you should actually fear in the next installment of Netflix’s teen-witch drama, which is just about to wrap production.
“We are still shooting and we’re kind of down to our last few episodes of Part 4, which has been really, really fun,” “Sabrina” creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told TheWrap. “Each part has its own kind of identity, and Part 4 is different from Part 3, where a lot of it was set in Hell, we still have that. But each episode of Part 4 is like its own mini horror movie, which is exciting.”
As you know, since you’re here, Season 3 of “Sabrina” ended with a time-paradox that allowed for two Sabrinas (both played by Kiernan Shipka) to exist: one ruling as the Queen of Hell and one up with her family and friends being a normal-ish teen in Greendale. Aguirre-Sacasa told us that Sabrina’s decision is going to have “huge repercussions” in Season 4. “Without spoiling anything,” he said, “there is a good possibility” we’ll be following both Sabrinas simultaneously going forward.”
“I think one of the things that’s really fun in Part 4 is we play a little bit like a demonic version of ‘The Crown,’ with a lot of palace intrigue and a lot of jockeying for power between Lucifer (Luke Cook) and Madam Satan/Lilith (Michelle Gomez) and Sabrina,” he said. “So that’s something we explore. But the power struggle is mainly between Lilith and Lucifer. And that’s kind of their big story even from the beginning of the series, this idea of power between the two of them. And Sabrina is caught in the middle of it, and now Satan’s unborn baby is part of that as well.”
Oh right, Sabrina has a little bro on the way — a baby that Lilith tricked Lucifer into impregnating her with — who she’s supposed to be keeping the throne “warm” for. OK, well, that’s the “Hell” Sabrina’s problem, but what about the “Greendale” Sabrina’s Season 4 storyline?
“One of my favorite horror writers is H.P. Lovecraft, and there’s a definite H.P. Lovecraft vibe to Part 4,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “And we’re taking very, very old primal ideas of horror and fear and unleashing them on Sabrina, on the Spellmans and on Greendale. And Greendale becomes a battle ground for this really epic battles between evil and good and horror and sanity and it’s huge, it’s big.”
For those who aren’t familiar with the work of the late horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, he is best known for his creation of the fictional cosmic entity Cthulhu and other eldritch creatures. These are the antagonists coming at Sabrina in Season 4 — after she just defeated The Pagans in Season 3 — courtesy of Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle).
“At the end of the season, Father Blackwood says he’s unleashed the ‘Eldritch Terrors’ and those are kind of our threats in Part 4,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “So each episode has a Big Bad that represents this primal terror, this primal fear. So we see Blackwood ascend a little bit more again to the level he was around Season 1 as a threat, because of what he’s unleashed.”
Alright, that’s enough horror talk for now. What is going on with everyone’s love lives in Season 4, given that Sabrina and Nick (Gavin Leatherwood) are now over, Harvey (Ross Lynch) and Rosalind (Jaz Sinclair) are on — but a little doubtful of each other’s feelings — and Theo (Lachlan Watson) has officially hooked up with Robin (Jonathan Whitesell)?
“One of the fun things about ‘Sabrina’ from the original comic book was that there was this witch in high school and a lot of romantic drama,” Aguirre-Sacasa, who, along with his role as “Sabrina” showrunner is the chief creative officer at Archie Comics and the boss of The CW’s “Riverdale,” said. “I think in Part 3, we play that relationship angst between Sabrina and Nick a lot. I think Harvey and Sabrina will always have a special place in each other’s hearts — though I love Harvey with Rosalind and I think those characters have such great chemistry together.”
Part of the drama that’s seeped into Roz and Harvey’s relationship came when Caliban (Sam Corlett) said that Harvey was unable to restores Roz from her statue-like state because she wasn’t his true love, which obviously led Harvey and Sabrina to think about whether or not they were meant to be together again. They ended up finding another way to get Roz back to normal, and Harvey and Sabrina didn’t speak of their possible lingering feelings — but it’s clearly all complicated now.
“There’s a universe where Caliban was completely lying about that spell and you know he’s sort of another part of all this stuff,” Aguirre-Sacasa told us. “So I think that’s been a really fun element to play in Part 3, and we play even more in Part 4, the ideas of star-crossed lovers and who Sabrina is really meant for and who Harvey is really meant for. We definitely are still playing that, though I think in Part 4, by the end of it, it’s clear who is ‘endgame.’”
Thank Satan! Now what about Theo?
“I think, with all the shows that I work on, I feel that representation is so important and that the character of Theo really resonated with viewers,” he said. “And I think in an effort to treat Theo, to give Theo the same thing as the other characters, it felt like, ‘Oh, Harvey has a love interest, Rosalind has a love interest, Sabrina does,’ so it felt like we should tell that story with Theo.”
“And I love the actor who plays Robin, Jonathan. He’s done a few episodes of ‘Riverdale’ for me,” he added. “And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that would be a really fun pairing to tell the story of a first kiss and first love.’ Of course, it’s ‘Sabrina’ so there’s weirdness, like he’s a hobgoblin. But I really root for that couple; I’m really happy that they’re together. I love their romantic scenes together.”
And what’s going on with Prudence (Tati Gabrielle) and Nick, who we saw forming a renewed alliance in the finale after she left Ambrose and he had fully let go of Sabrina?
“Prudence and Nicholas, they’re a little bit broken and a little bit like lost souls at the end of Part 3 and they have had a relationship in the past, so I do think they are a source of comfort for each other and we’ll explore it in Part 4,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “But it’s very different from the way Nick and Sabrina were. Prudence and Nick are true witches, both of them, and they have very different ideas of love and sex and it’s a very different dynamic to explore.”
Readers can find what Aguirre-Sacasa told us about the time-paradox Season 3 finale here and what he had to say about “Sabrina’s” sorta crossover with “Riverdale” here.