The witch is back! Sabrina Spellman to return in Riverdale season 6

Just because Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has ended doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Sabrina Spellman.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Kiernan Shipka’s teenage witch will be heading to Riverdale in season 6 to help Cheryl Blossom, who, spoiler alert, began dabbling in the dark arts during the series’ most recent run of episodes. This crossover will take place during the sixth episode of Riverdale‘s upcoming sixth season, and will feature Sabrina aiding Cheryl as she performs a dangerous spell to save the life of a beloved member of the Blossom family.

The burning question fans have at the moment is: how is this happening? The last time we saw Sabrina, in the series finale of the Netflix series, she was dead. In fact, she was in the Sweet Hereafter with Nick, mourned by her family and friends as they buried her outside the Spellman Mortuary in their graveyard.

Earlier this summer, it was announced that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was getting its own graphic novel continuation, called The Occult World of Sabrina, which will pick up right where the Netflix series left off. Hopefully that comic can offer some insight into when and how Sabrina came back to the land of the living, and how she makes her way to Riverdale.

Prior to Sabrina’s season 6 appearance, Chilling Adventures and Riverdale never had a true crossover, though various easter eggs popped up on each show over the years. Despite the lack of a full crossover, the shows have been known to share cast members and drop fun hints for fans to dissect. Former Weird Sister Adeline Rudolph, who played Agatha Night on Chilling Adventures, played Minerva Marble on Riverdale this past season. Nathalie Boltt, who plays Cheryl’s mom Penelope Blossom, was in Chilling Adventures Part 3 when Prudence used a glamour to disguise herself on her hunt for Father Blackwood.

Also during Part 3, Sabrina quite literally crossed over into the town of Riverdale, but only stayed in the woods, never actually interacting with the characters. It’s anyone’s best guess as to what she could be doing in Riverdale this time around, especially since she’s supposed to be, you know, dead.

As of now, the details are pretty sparse, with Archie-verse creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa simply saying that this crossover is something they’ve been planning since season 1 and that it’s “really fun and special.”

Shipka celebrated the announcement with a picture on Instagram of her sitting in her “Sabrina Spellman,” chair on the Riverdale set, writing: “from Greendale to Riverdale. See u in Season 6.”

It’s an understatement to say I’m excited, especially because Chilling Adventures felt like it ended before its time when Netflix canceled it last year as they were scaling down their productions due to the pandemic. There were brief rumors of a Part 5 on HBOMax, but those hopes were dashed pretty quickly, so it seems like Riverdale is the only place we’ll see the Spellmans on screen again.

More Sabrina is always a good thing, and I hope Shipka’s appearance will lead to more Chilling Adventures characters appearing on Riverdale in the future, especially as Cheryl embraces her new witchy role on the show.