When most people first heard about Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina series, chances are they immediately thought about the ‘90s sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which starred Melissa Joan Hart as the titular spellcaster.
As the first trailer and other promotional materials have made quite plain, however, this new take on the Archie Comics character is nothing like its previous television adaptation. This is a point that the Scottish actress Michelle Gomez, who played the villain Missy in Doctor Who, drives home when speaking about the show and her role in it.
Michelle Gomez explains why Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t for kids
“It’s not a kid’s show about witches,” she says. “You aren’t going to sit your five-year-old down and watch this, but you could sit down and watch it with your teenager. Both parties will get to enjoy it because it doesn’t patronize the youth. There’s also something there for the older generations. I guess parents can finally watch something with their teenagers.”
Based on the more recent Archie Comics run of the same name, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina tells a coming-of-age story about Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka), who is half-human and half-witch. On the eve of her birthday, she must choose to forego her human life and devote herself fully to the darker teachings of the supernatural world she also inhabits. But Sabrina chooses not to do so, resulting in a cascade of horrors not unlike those found in classic films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist.
Or as Gomez plainly explained it, this show isn’t for kids.
The Doctor Who alum plays Mary Wardell, Sabrina’s favorite teacher at Baxter High. Seeing her as an opportunity to manipulate the young witch, however, the devil himself instructs one of his handmaidens to possess Wardell, thereby turning her into Madam Satan.
“It’s sort of discombobulating,” she says of playing a sort of dual role. “You don’t quite know where you are, and I love that nothing really has to be explained. I love that we don’t outline exactly who, what or why Madam Satan is about. It’s an incredibly rich and colorful demographic, and everybody has a right to be there without explanation.”
“The show can be dark, but it’s not bleak,” Gomez continues. “There’s something operatic about it. It’s ambitious, and I get to be in a role with a language that’s really unique right now. [Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s] world, as he’s created it, and the language that we speak is quite unusual and wonderful.”
As for whether or not that playing the devilishly evil Madam Satan after bringing Missy to life may result in a form of typecasting, the actress isn’t worried at all.
“It’s a different project, it’s a different voice and the world these ideas are coming from is utterly different. I’ve been blessed and privileged to work with people like Steven Moffat and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. I mean, I thought that was it for me. I thought it couldn’t get any better than playing Missy with Peter Capaldi, and then along comes Madam Satan. There’s always an opportunity to do something differently, to tackle it from a different angle.”
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina streams Friday, Oct. 26, on Netflix.
