Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 4 spoilers follow.
Worlds collide in Sabrina's final season, and no, we don't just mean that cosmic clash between realms. Seventeen years after Melissa Joan Hart's teenage witch rode off with Harvey on his motorbike, Netflix's reboot has finally answered our prayers to Hecate by bringing back key members of the original cast.
Chief among them is Beth Broderick, who helped raise Sabrina in the role of Aunt Zelda. Together with Caroline Rhea, the OG Hilda, Beth became an iconic fixture in the lives of children and adults alike through the '90s and beyond.
"When I first read the script, I knew I would be in it, and I knew it would be a hit," Beth tells us. "I just knew. And the minute we started shooting it, we knew: 'This is special. There's nothing like this on TV.'"
But Beth didn't quite understand at the time just how iconic Sabrina would become, not until years later. "We were on every day in every country, and to have that kind of a global impact... I’m so grateful that the message of girl power has travelled around the world, been translated into dozens of languages, and found its way into so many homes."
When asked how Netflix's reboot compares to her original show, Beth describes it as "an entirely different genre", but nonetheless, there's an empowering thread that continues to connect them both. "It's still about girl power, and it's still about the kind of magic you can make in the world if you're true to yourself."
By updating these themes for today — "Girls are strong, women are role models but not perfect" — Chilling Adventures of Sabrina speaks to fans of the original and newcomers alike. And that's why Beth's return to the franchise still makes sense, despite the wildly different tone of each incarnation.
"It's about the kind of magic you can make in the world if you're true to yourself."
"It was so much fun," Beth says near the start of our chat. "It was very moving, too, because we really like the new cast, and we always wished them well. So it was really a great joy to be able to meet them and work with them."
Clearly, the feeling was mutual. When Hilda and Zelda made their entrance in the first table read — "Sabrina, is that you?" — Zelda recalls that "the whole room went wild". Most of the cast had grown up watching Beth and Caroline in the original show, so "it just brought back so many memories for people".
Appearing in the reboot also brought back plenty of memories for Beth too. "Everything has evolved so much since we first shot Sabrina, Beth recalls. "When we first started, there was no such thing as CGI. Special effects were still very rudimentary. If you were going to point and have orange juice come out your finger, you had to wear a rig with a big pack of orange juice on your back, and somebody off-camera had to shoot it out of you."
Much has changed, but throughout the years, Beth has remained close friends with Caroline and Melissa. "With Caroline and I, even at the wardrobe fitting, we were laughing so hard that we could barely breathe. So it's always fun to be with Caroline. It was a treat to get to spend a lot of quality time with her."
Beth also tells me that she enjoyed working with the new Sabrina cast too, and while it was a bit surreal to act alongside another Zelda, she and Miranda Otto shared "so much common ground". Sure, the reboot is a lot darker, and yes, the new aunts are different in temperament, but the "tremendous amount of love" they share for Sabrina is still the same, binding both Zeldas together as two sides of the same coin.
Looking back at her time on set, Beth remembers, "There's a scene where Miranda and I kind of face off, and it was really fun, because I thought we were quite evenly matched… There we are, dressed identically. It was a hoot!"
Unfortunately, Melissa didn't join Beth and Caroline for a full-blown reunion this time. When asked why that might be the case, Beth told me she doesn't know, but her theory is that this "would have been very hard to structure".
"It would have been almost destructive to try and bring her in," Beth elaborates. "Because with us, the aunties got even older. That makes sense. But for Sabrina to suddenly be a grown woman with three kids on her own – I think it'd be harder to meld those plots."
On a season where two Sabrinas became the norm, it appears that three might have been just one too many. But that would still be nothing compared to what used to happen in the original show. As '90s kids might recall, everyone's favourite teenage witch didn't have an easy time of it either. Pancake addiction, magical body-swapping, and a journey into Libby's nose were just some of the wildest antics Sabrina got up to back in the day.
"How many people go to work and see that every day?"
When asked to choose a favourite episode, it's not an easy decision for Beth to make — "There are so many. There were so many crazy things!" — but there's one moment in particular which still stands out, and it actually took place off-camera.
"So I'm walking from my trailer to the set, and I hear this huge commotion in the costume room. I look in, and they're attempting to measure a chicken for a tuxedo! How many people go to work and see that every day? That's what I’d like to know. This is what my job was like for six years!" Beth laughs.
But not everyone got a kick out of Sabrina like this. Due to its focus on magic and witches, some religious viewers objected to the show, and even sent Beth "nasty notes" that said, "You're going to go to hell."
"I got two Bibles in the mail from people who thought maybe I needed to read it, like I didn’t have one," Beth continues. "There were people who reacted very negatively, but they were so few and far between. I think most people understood that we were talking about a different kind of magic, one that's rooted in human behaviour, and that brings out the best in us."
This "magic" Beth speaks of is precisely why Sabrina touched the hearts of so many. In a world where cats talk and costume changes come at the flick of a finger, there was no room for prejudice or judgement. Plenty of people found comfort in this, including queer viewers like your writer who loved to escape into Sabrina's world for thirty minutes each week.
And I wasn't the only one either. "We aired on Friday nights," Beth recalls. "There was a big ritual a lot of gay men had where they would watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch while they were getting ready to go out to the clubs. When RuPaul came on the show, he said, 'Oh, I love this show! You lesbians and that gay cat? Just hilarious.'"
"When RuPaul came on, he said, 'Oh, I love this show! You lesbians and that gay cat? Hilarious."
Aunt Zelda in particular became a queer icon for many, and that means a great deal to Beth. "We were always thrilled to be appreciated by the gay community. Nothing could make me happier than to know they loved Aunt Zelda."
Long before Beth joined Sabrina, she co-founded Momentum, one of the very first programmes to support people with AIDS in America. When I personally thank her for this incredible ally-ship, Beth humbly replies, "It was one of those moments in history where it was time to show up, you know?"
Whether it's through being an advocate for the queer community or supporting homeless women in emergency shelters, Beth takes great pride in helping others, and it's this element of Sabrina's legacy that also sticks with her the most after all these years.
Knowing that fans still find comfort in the show two decades on, Beth added: "It just thrills me because our show spreads joy. And there have been some dark years, especially recently, for all of us around the globe. If our show can still find our way into people's homes and hearts, then that makes me happy."
Although the new show has now also come to an end, I fully expect that people will continue to find joy in both versions of Sabrina for decades to come. And as Beth points out, maybe "a new iteration of Sabrina can be born in the future", one that continues to make us believe in all kinds of magic, both real and otherwise.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina seasons 1-4 are streaming now on Netflix.
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David Opie
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.