Here are some things we know about Netflix’s upcoming Sabrina remake. 1) It will be a lot darker than its upbeat Nineties source material, with producers promising a tone similar to “Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist”. 2) Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka will star as Sabrina, supported by a cast that includes Lucy Davis (aka Dawn in The Office). 3) Harvey Kinkle and Salem will both appear. 4) Fans already have very, very high hopes for the series.

Now, Netflix has released the first photos of Shipka in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – and it couldn’t look more different to the cheerful domesticity of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

The new photos released by Netflix appear to show Sabrina being baptised in the woods, surrounded by a circle of unfamiliar – and decidedly spooky – characters.

The forthcoming series is actually based on the comic book series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, first published in 2014 by Archie Comics, which relocates Sabrina Spellman to a more horror-focused Sixties setting.

Archie Comics, of course, is the home of the classic comic book series Archie– which in turn inspired the TV show Riverdale. As a result, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Riverdale are set in the same universe. 

True to the comic book version of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the 10-episode reboot will be a coming-of-age story exploring Sabrina’s “half-witch, half-mortal” origins. It will see Sabrina start her education as a sorceress and struggle to reconcile the conflicting sides of her character – all while trying to maintain a normal life at high school.

Speaking earlier this year, Shipka said she was “really pumped to be a witch”, and praised Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s sinister interpretation of the original TV series.

“After I read the script, I became immediately obsessed with the role, with how Sabrina is portrayed and how badass the whole thing is,” she told Comicbook. “It’s going to be really dark and really cool, and have this very macabre take on everything.”

She added that she was a fan of many of the classic horror films that have inspired the tone of the new Sabrina series. “I mean, I love The Crucible, and I love the dark Rosemary’s Baby vibe of things,” she said. “And this is the direction that it’s going to go, which is really fun.”

The first 10-episode season of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is set to drop on Netflix on 26 October, with a second season already in the works. We’ll be watching…

Images: Getty Images / Netflix / Diyah Pera