Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has always been keen to distance itself from the previous most famous adaptation of the Archie Comics character, classic 90s sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But the upcoming fourth and final season will tip its hat to that iconic show by bringing back two of its stars to reprise their roles. Namely, Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea are returning as the old school version of Aunts Zelda and Hilda.
In this first clip from CAOS Part 4, Kiernan Shipka’s Sabrina Spellman finds herself in some kind of weird, dream reality where she’s greeted by two women claiming to be her aunts. Broderick and Rhea recreate the personalities of their sitcom characters, with the latter even getting to crack a gag, which gets a canned laughter response, leaving Sabrina confused as to where the laughs are coming from.
The joke here is that she appears to be in a TV show version of her life, with Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) turning up as a director. It’s kind of a shame that they didn’t go the whole hog and design the set to look like a recreation of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but getting the original stars of the series back is fun enough. It’s also great that the show managed to sneak in this nod to Sabrina’s TV history before it was prematurely cancelled by Netflix.
Yes, the incoming batch of episodes will be the last. There’s maybe still some hope that CAOS could be picked up elsewhere or Shipka may cameo on Riverdale, but as things stand, the sorceress’ journey has come to an end. Thankfully, though, this looks to be a thrilling last season, even if it wasn’t intended to be, with the scale of the threat bigger than ever and Sabrina’s personal relationships coming to a head.
Don’t miss Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 4 when it lands on Netflix this New Year’s Eve.