‘Riverdale’: Kiernan Shipka Breaks Down Sabrina Spellman’s Witchy Return

After a brief appearance earlier this season on Riverdale, Kiernan Shipka returned in full force on this week’s episode as Sabrina Spellman. And she brought another Chilling Adventures of Sabrina character with her — with a big twist. Spoilers past this point, but thanks to some body swapping shenanigans, Sabrina’s love interest Nick Scratch, formerly played by Gavin Leatherwood, returned… But in the body of Jughead Jones, played by Cole Sprouse.

“What to me was most important was finding that chemistry that existed so strongly and palpably between Nick and Sabrina,” Shipka told Decider. “So bringing that into it and making sure that Cole and I had that sort of electric, buzzy, flirtatious, romantic energy the same way that me and Gavin did… That was my job. And Cole’s job. And I think we did a good job.”

The circumstances of Sabrina’s (and Nick’s) return are bizarre, even by Riverdale standards. Due to a biblical slaying of the first born in last week’s episode, this week’s “Chapter One Hundred And Fourteen: The Witches of Riverdale” found Jughead, Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan), and Fangs Fogarty (Drew Ray Tanner) all dead and in their own personal versions of Heaven, called The Sweet Hereafter. In order to bring them back to life in time for a final battle with this season’s villain, Percival Pickens (Chris O’Shea), Cheryl Blossom’s (Madelaine Petsch) new girlfriend Heather (Caroline Day) recruited her old Greendale buddy, Sabrina, to shape up the survivors into a band of resurrecting witches.

If you’re confused how Sabrina is still alive after she was in her own Sweet Hereafter in the series finale of Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the return is sort of explained about halfway through the episode. Basically, when Nick Scratch threw himself into the Sea of Sorrows at the end of CAOS, it wasn’t to reunite with Sabrina; it was to trade his soul for hers. So now she’s alive and specializing in resurrections, and Nick is dead and waiting for her… At least when he’s not helping out by temporarily taking over Jughead’s corpse.

Regardless, Sabrina and Nick’s assistance is good news for Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and Tabitha Tate (Erinn Westbrook), who immediately sign up to join Sabrina’s makeshift coven. And by episode’s end, not only have we discovered that Cheryl Blossom has phoenix powers, but she’s used them to bring the whole cast back to life… With some extras. Specifically, while trying to bring Toni and Fangs back, Cheryl discovered that Betty’s sister Polly Cooper (Tiera Skovbye) and her own brother Jason Blossom (Trevor Stines) were married, with triplets on the way. So Cheryl brought them back to life, too.

As Sabrina warns her, these sorts of resurrections may have serious repercussions… Are we about to head towards a zombie apocalypse straight out of Archie Comics’ Afterlife With Archie? To discuss that, and a whole lot more, read on.

Decider: When did you first know you were coming back to Riverdale for a second episode this season?

Kiernan Shipka: [Showrunner] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] and I always text about it. … We’d always talked about it and I always knew that I was going to come back and do something more than just the first ep, but time sort of aligned in a kind of way, it happened pretty quickly to be quite honest. He texted me and said, “Hey, are you free here. Are you ready to go?” And I actually think I reached out to him, too. I said, “Hey, by the way, I got off a month and a half right now if you want to do something.” And schedules just aligned, and we were ready to rock and roll. I always knew I wanted to do it, It just was a matter of when.

This time you got to work with almost the full cast… Most of them are dead, of course, but were there any pairings in particular that were surprising or fun for you?

Working with Cole [Sprouse] is the best, especially given the context of this episode… We were having too much fun. It was hilarious. I love Cole, and I’ve wanted to work with him for such a long time. We were playing every single time that we tried to stand together. I felt like I really was hanging out with a friend, and enjoying ourselves to the fullest. It was so fun. I never wanted those days to wrap up.

I don’t even know if this really matters but just because we’re dealing with parallel universes this season, is this our Sabrina we see in this episode? Is this the Chilling Adventures universe, making this episode canon? Is it another Sabrina? Or again, does it not really matter and just don’t worry about it?

I mean to my knowledge, she’s our girl. In my head, there’s only one Sabrina, because I guess at one point there were two. But this is OG canon Sabrina Spellman going in and saving the day. Again.

This seems like a more mature, confident Sabrina and obviously we’re a couple of years down the road from where the show ended. What was it like playing this mode for her?

When I wrapped Sabrina, I was 20 years old and I’m 22 now, and a lot has changed in my life since I finished the show. I’ve certainly grown a lot and become a different person in many ways. So to bring a new mature version of myself to this character that I knew and loved, felt really cathartic and really right. And it was very joyous to take this thing that I had developed and crafted over the years and put a new spin on it and a new version of myself into it. It was really, really so fun. So fun and just exciting to do something a little new with something that was already familiar in this kind of lovely way.

You also got to wear the classic comic book Sabrina outfit in one scene, which I think you did a photo shoot in back in the day, if I remember correctly. But what was it like hopping into the costume for the scene?

It was so fun, especially because we were in Pop’s, and I’ve always wanted to film in Pop’s. And so to be there in that outfit felt like, oh my gosh… This is a dream. My life, and the things that I get to do, and the way that I get to do this, it’s just wild. It’s so amazing to me. It felt utterly cool.

I also loved that we got a classic Sabrina dance scene here, though in a very different context. How carefully choreographed was that? Or was that just everybody having fun?

It was everyone having fun. We had a choreographer come in at the last minute to give us a little refresher on how to move. It was at the end of a long day, too, but most of that was us improvising and having fun. And we wanted to get those iconic Sabrina twists, to have that parallel from the Halloween party in season one of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. But besides that, it was just moving and grooving and having a good time.

We have the big twist here with Nick Scratch coming back in Jughead’s body. Maybe this is more for the producers, but do you know… Was there any chance of Gavin Leatherwood coming back? Or was it always going to be the body switch in the episode?

The body swap was part of the fun for this episode. I mean, seeing Cole take on Nick Scratch to me was just so delightful and lovely and fun. So, that I think was the point of this particular episode. Not to say that Nick Scratch is not there still, and not to say that we won’t see him again, because I hope we do. I really do. But for this episode, we wanted to give Cole that sense of fun. He’s played Jughead for so long, right? Give him another character for an episode.

Did you give him any Gavin Leatherwood acting tips to get the character just right?

Honestly, he had it down. That guy did his research. But I think what to me was most important was finding that chemistry that existed so strongly and palpably between Nick and Sabrina. So bringing that into it and making sure that Cole and I had that sort of electric, buzzy, flirtatious, romantic energy the same way that me and Gavin did… That was my job. And Cole’s job. And I think we did a good job.

How do you channel that feeling? This his is such a weird, specific circumstance of playing the same relationship that you played for several years on a TV show, but with an entirely new actor. So, how do you channel those feelings?

It’s funny. This job always requires you to stretch your imagination in new sorts of ways, and this was definitely one of those instances. But I gotta say, it was pretty easy to do with Cole, because he’s so charming. It’s hard not to just gaze at him lovingly. And it was also written in such a way where he was speaking like Nick, and he was acting like Nick. So, I use my imagination, which is a tool that every actor kind of has to sharpen over and over and over again. And beyond that, it’s just trusting the actor and living in that moment – having fun with it, too.

You also get this very quiet, intimate scene in the middle of an absolutely bonkers episode in the Italian restaurant. What was it like filming that one in particular?

It was really lovely. I love a grounded scene more than anything. So to be able to have that kind of quiet, real moment, which I think is always… At the heart of Sabrina, it’s love and love for Nick Scratch. So really to dial that in was beautiful.

You’ve been pretty publicly a Nabrina shipper yourself, so how did you feel about the resolution… I guess for now, assuming that potentially could continue somewhere down the road. But this really does feel like a capper on that finale of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina in this episode. So how do you feel about how Nabrina ended up?

Well, it always seems like it never quite ends, right? There’s an open-endedness to it, always. And to me that lives peaceful in my heart, because I’m just not done with Sabrina and I don’t think that people are either. So, one day maybe there will be full, full, full, full full closure to some extent, but I don’t think it’s now and I think that’s how it’s meant to be.

On that note, I know there’s so many things going on behind the scenes, so I don’t even know how much you can even speak to this from any sort of standpoint. But what are the chances of either a full on Chilling Adventures revival, a one-off special anything like that?

I truly… I don’t know. I really don’t know. I don’t know. I truly don’t. But I’m down. As far as other powers that be that have to snap fingers to make things happen, that’s a whole different story. But I can speak from my own heart and say that I love this character and I’d love to play her in other capacities. And not to put words in Roberto’s mouth, but I think we both love Sabrina so much and would be open to doing something with her beyond what’s been done.

Getting back to Riverdale, at the end of the episode, Cheryl brings Jason and Polly back to life, which as Sabrina points out is a pretty dicey move. If the show does use this to pivot into zombie apocalypse and perhaps an adaptation of Afterlife With Archie, will you come back next season to help save the town?

Sure thing. Whenever they need me. I’ll come in on the broomstick. [Laughs]

Last thing, just out of curiosity, I know a few years ago, you and Cole were both attached to a project called Blood Ties. Is that still in the works? Or is that not in the cards anymore?

I mean, we’re both still attached to it. Those movies take years and years to make, man. Wild, but I hope it happens one day. I really do. I have no idea of what the update is on it right now. But I’d love to do it and obviously, would love to work with Cole in any capacity.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Riverdale airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW.