Kiernan Shipka Thinks Sabrina "Has To Come Back" For Riverdale's Final Season
"I think they're gonna need her, to be quite honest."
You haven’t seen the last of Sabrina Spellman, Riverdale fans. Or at least, that’s what Kiernan Shipka thinks. Fresh off her second trip to the town with pep, the actor got real about how she sees her witchy character figuring into Riverdale’s final season. And yes, it definitely sounds like Sabrina will be in Riverdale Season 7 in some way, and Kiernan Shipka can’t wait to cast some more spells.
Shipka’s already appeared in Riverdale twice since the teen drama’s sister series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ended. Sabrina showed up at the beginning of Season 6 in the parallel universe Rivervale to help Cheryl with a spell, and then she flew in again at the end of the season to guide Cheryl, Betty, Veronica, and Tabitha into becoming witches themselves. Since Riverdale has fully embraced the supernatural in its sixth season, Sabrina’s inclusion felt like a perfect fit, and Shipka is pretty confident she’ll be part of the show for its seventh and final season as well.
“She has to come back. I think they're gonna need her help again,” Shipka said of Sabrina in a July 10 interview with TV Guide. "Like for entertainment's sake, I would say [they should] lean into the chaos — no pun intended — as much as they can and work hard and have faith that it's all gonna work out, but at the end of the day, just truly probably call Sabrina again. I think they're gonna need her, to be quite honest.”
Shipka went on to say she believes showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa already has plans to bring Sabrina back in the final season, and that she’s down to return whenever he calls.
“For the final season of Riverdale, I told [Aguirre-Sacasa] whenever you need me, I'm there. I'm your girl,” Shipka said. “I think that both Roberto and I — and I don't want to put words in his mouth — but I really do think that we're both so passionate about this character and keeping her alive and well in the zeitgeist, in the universe ... I, certainly, and I think Roberto too, want to continuously see where she could go.”
And Shipka already has the perfect idea for Sabrina’s return: a full-fledged Riverdale/CAOS crossover. “I think Riverdale deserves a wild last season,” she said. “It's been doing so much stuff, why not have one episode where it's just a full Riverdale/Greendale town merge?”
Riverdale’s seventh and final season is scheduled to premiere sometime in 2023.
