Sabrina boss reveals new Salem

Netflix’s Sabrina project has found its Salem Saberhagen.

On Friday, executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa shared a first look photo of Salem the cat from Netflix’s adaptation of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comics, which is said to be a much darker take on Sabrina the Teenage Witch (now portrayed by Kiernan Shipka).

The Untitled Sabrina Project imagines the origin and adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch as a dark coming-of-age story that traffics in horror, the occult, and, of course, witchcraft. Tonally in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, this adaptation finds Sabrina wrestling to reconcile her dual nature — half-witch, half-mortal — while standing against the evil forces that threaten her, her family, and the daylight world humans inhabit.

In the original comics, Salem was an ordinary, non-speaking cat. But after the success of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch sitcom that starred Melissa Joan Hart — in which Salem’s plans for world domination were always more tongue-in-cheek — Salem eventually evolved into a much darker character the comics. That would seem to be in line with the untitled Netflix drama skewing much darker as well.

The series, which recently scored a two-season pickup at Netflix, hails from Aguirre-Sacasa and Greg Berlanti.