‘Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina’ Was Planning A ‘Riverdale’ Crossover, But It Got Canceled
As if Netflix canceling Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was not already upsetting enough, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa revealed a major detail about the nixed season that would have given fans the event everyone has been waiting for. That's right — there was going to be a Riverdale crossover in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 5, but now the series will end without ever fully bringing the worlds of Sabrina and Archie together. At least the crossover will still take place in comic-book form, Aguirre-Sacasa confirmed, but that's still disappointing to fans who've waited for the big event to take place on TV.
On Wednesday, July 8, Netflix revealed Chilling Adventures of Sabrina would come to an end after airing its upcoming Part 4 — the show's second half of its second season. The news sent shockwaves across the Riverdale fandom, especially since fellow Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene had just been canceled days earlier. While Katy Keene was full of Riverdale crossovers, and was setting up even more for its now-canceled second season, Sabrina was much more self-contained, likely because of the show's home on Netflix rather than The CW. Fans had been waiting for the series to have a full-on crossover with Riverdale ever since it premiered, but the closest Sabrina ever came to bridging the worlds was a brief cameo by a side character, a quick trip to Riverdale without interacting with any of the residents, and some sly mentions of the nearby town.
Apparently, that would have all changed in Part 5, though. A day after Sabrina was canceled, Aguirre-Sacasa revealed his plans for what would have been the third season included the crossover event fans have been begging for.
Aguirre-Sacasa posted an illustration of the Riverdale main characters (Archie, Betty, Jughead, Veronica, and Cheryl) squaring off against Sabrina's group of friends (Sabrina, Nick, Harvey, Roz, and Theo), teasing that Part 5 would have been called "Witch War."
It's not clear how this crossover would have gone down, or how much of the new season it would have encompassed. The name and visual clearly suggest the two groups would have battled one another, although that feels like a pretty lopsided war considering the Greendale bunch has magical powers while Riverdale's defenders are just normal teenagers (OK, maybe "normal" is a stretch, but you know what I mean).
Another complicating factor would have been the time jump Riverdale is planning for its fifth season. Although Aguirre-Sacasa didn't confirm how big of a jump this will be, most fans are assuming the show will fast-forward five years to skip over college and bring the new graduates back to Riverdale together. While this skip would have made Riverdale contemporaneous with the future-set Katy Keene, it would have meant the new season would be years ahead of Sabrina. Then again, time travel is a pretty common occurrence in Sabrina, so the writers could have easily made the crossover work.
Part 4 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is slated to air on Netflix later in 2020, and Season 5 of Riverdale is poised to premiere on The CW at the beginning of 2021.
