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The Spellman Family
Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina Edwina Diana Spellman / Sabrina Morningstar
Played By: Kiernan Shipka | Mckenna Grace (young)
Voiced By: Azul Valadez (Latin American Spanish), Laura Pastor (European Spanish), Noriko Shitaya (Japanese)
"My name is Sabrina Spellman, and I will NOT sign it away!"
A half-mortal, half-witch teenager on the eve of her 16th birthday who has trouble choosing between both worlds.
- Adaptational Heroism: She is much more selfless and heroic compared to how her comic book counterpart is in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic via the fact that she only uses her magic mostly to help or protect people (or at least get revenge for them).
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Zigzagged. Her hair color is a more natural blonde, which is consistent with some of the previous adaptations. However, after signing her name in the Book of the Beast at the end of the season one finale, it turns a more platinum blonde, which is more consistent with the comics.
- Alliterative Name: Her name and surname both begin with "S".
- All-Loving Hero: In "Feast of Feasts", she makes every effort to convince Prudence not to be sacrificed, explaining that she finds all life precious, even the life of someone who harrowed her and tried to kill her.
- Anti-Anti-Christ: She was born from Satan and was destined to create perversions of Jesus' miracles. Though she did them with the best of intentions, like healing or saving her friends, she still ends up causing the apocalypse by following through with it. She however actively rebels against her father and heritage and tries to defeat him, even siding with Lilith to trap him back in Hell.
- Apocalypse Maiden: Sabrina was sired by Satan and born to be The Antichrist, intended to carry out perverse inversions of Jesus' miracles in order to allow Satan to retake his true form on Earth and unlock the Gates of Hell.
- Badass Adorable: She is a very sweet and cute teenager who is a powerful and skilled half-witch.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Sabrina is one of the nicest people in town, but crossing her is a serious mistake. The Weird Sisters learn this the hard way when they try to harrow her for the third time (despite her repeated attempts to convince them to stop).
- Bully Hunter: It doesn't matter if they're mortal Jerk Jock bullies at Baxter High or the Alpha Bitch and her Girl Posse at the Academy of Unseen Arts, Sabrina will use her magic to bring them down.
- The Chosen One: It is mentioned repeatedly that The Dark Lord believes Sabrina will become one of the greatest witches in history. This seems to be one of the main reasons why he's so determined to make her sign the Book of the Beast. One of the first signs that he could be right is when Sabrina becomes the fourth witch in history able to summon Hellfire.
- Dark Messiah: The Dark Lord's plan for her. She is supposed to become his prophet on Earth when the gates of hell open. Season 2 turns her into a full blown messianic archetype as she goes own to realize miracles of multiple sort including resurrecting the dead and healing wounds that seem fatal. At one point she even wears a crown of thorns in a church.
- Didn't Think This Through: Sabrina has a tendency to not take into account the ramifications of her actions, or consider the possible unintended consequences of her plans, leading to them blowing up in her face.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Throughout the first season, Sabrina refused to sign her name in the Dark Lord's book during the full witch ceremony and openly defies the evil god, refusing to give up her soul. Subverted in the end, when Madam Satan manipulates Sabrina into signing the book.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Sabrina learns this the hard way in Season 1.
- Every One Can See It: After Harvey and Sabrina break up it is obvious to the rest of the cast that they still love each other and would always be there for one another, multiple times Nick and Roz keep asking if they still love each other, and despite denying it it's obvious that they still do and still want to be together but both are afraid of hurting the other again.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride. Sabrina is overconfident regarding her own capabilities and plans and tends to regard herself as being exempt from rules, often seeking out magical ways to have her cake and eat it too that inevitably end up just making things worse. This leads to one of the main conflicts of Part 1 and causes her and her loved ones a lot of trouble, but by the end of Part 3 she still doesn't appear to have learned her lesson.Ambrose: Why must you always insist that the universe grant you special privileges?
- Ironically, the one time she does think about the plan and puts Pride aside - as Hilda says Sabrina "knew" what she had to do - it gets her killed.
- Generation Xerox: Zig-zagged. Initially, it's established that Sabrina admires both her deceased parents, but is particularly interested in following in Edward's footsteps by studying conjuration and helping to bring the witch and mortal worlds together, as he did by marrying her mother. Then it's revealed that Lucifer, not Edward, is actually Sabrina's birth father, and she hates everything he stands for - but has also clearly inherited his arrogance, exceptionalism, and rebelliousness, and ends up following in his footsteps by becoming ruler of Hell.
- Good Is Not Soft: She's generally a nice person, but do not hurt her friends, family, or an innocent. Jimmy Platt found that out the hard way when Sabrina dragged him to Hell with a smile and told Lilith to get creative with his torture after she learns he sacrificed children to Lucifer for more time on Earth.
- Half-Human Hybrid: As always, she is a half-witch and half-mortal. Season Two hammers this home as Satan himself turns out to have been possessing Edward when she was conceived, making her not only half-mortal and half-witch, but half-angel.
- Hellfire: Upon signing the book, Sabrina becomes the fourth witch in recorded history to be able to summon hellfire at will.
- The Hero Dies: In order to save everyone that she accidentally encaged in the Void, Sabrina performs an Heroic Sacrifice and lets herself cut open on the chest in order to get everyone out and trap the Void in Pandora's box. Unfortunately, she dies from losing too much blood.
- Important Haircut: During the season one finale after signing her name on the book and using the powers given to her by the Dark Lord for the first time, Sabrina's hair color changes from blonde to an almost white platinum blonde, which mirrors her comic book counterpart.
- Inelegant Blubbering: After Harvey is forced to put down his Came Back Wrong brother after revealing to him that she's a witch, and is the one who brought Tommy back in the first place — and then breaking up with her as a result.
- No Immortal Inertia: When Sabrina's summoned to the Court of Witches, Zelda and Hilda lose their powers and start aging decades in a day. They get their magic and youth instantly restored when Sabrina wins her trial.
- Nice Girl: She has her flaws, but is generally a very kind and compassionate person.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The entire failed resurrection plot comes from Sabrina's resolve to help Harvey no matter what, as well as a general desire to have everything she wants without having to make a difficult decision. Believing she could cheat death itself by relying on Exact Words of a spell book's instructions, she tried to bring Tommy back without permanently sacrificing another's life, but Tommy Came Back Wrong and Agatha became deathly ill due to the earth being owed a soul. She gets viciously called out on it and it doesn't end well for her.
- Nightmare Fetishist: She loves horror movies, the bloodier the better.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Sabrina uses her magic a lot this way in this series, often dealing with antagonists in rather nightmarish ways, but damn if they don't deserve it.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: She gives one to the Greendale Thirteen when they confront each other in the season one finale. She threatens to summon hellfire to burn them, which they claim that only three witches in history have been able to summon. Sabrina quickly shuts them up saying she will summon hellfire and quickly does so with an incantation, ending their threat.Greendale Thirteen: [...] In the history of witches, only three...
Sabrina: Well, it's about to be four! - Pride: A lot of Sabrina's mistakes stem from the belief that she is clever and smart enough to always find a third or alternative solution that allows her to avoid any negative consequences from her actions.
- Red Is Heroic: Our heroine's favoured colour.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: To the point where this becomes her Signature Style of clothing.
- Sole Survivor: She was the only one who survived the plane crash that killed her Parents.
- Took a Level in Badass: After signing her name in the Book of Satan, her powers increased dramatically.
- Later on, to keep stability in Hell Sabrina accepts the Throne of Hell and becomes its Queen, appointing Lilith as her regent and advisor.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: While she's not above threatening people with death, she believes that life is precious and refrains from killing. Even when she needs to sacrifice someone for a ritual, she does so intending to bring them back to life once the ritual is done.
- Together in Death: At the end of "At the Mountains of Madness", Sabrina sacrifices herself to imprison the Void and the other eldritch terrors once-and-for-all. Nick Scratch drowns himself sometime after her death, and the two are reunited in what appears to be Heaven.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By introducing Harvey and Prudence, Sabrina started the chain of events that caused the death of Tommy Kinkle and four other miners, the murder of Agatha, Harvey finding out about her powers and breaking up with her as well as having to put down Zombie!Tommy, and the soul of Tommy being consumed in Limbo.
- What's Up, King Dude?: Not being a devout member of the Church of Night, she shows less than no genuine deference to Satan. The topper is her calling him "Dad" to his face, which causes some stir among the assembled crowd.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Once Sabrina becomes the Void she also got the destructive powers to turn everything into nothing. She has no choice but to departure for the Mountains of Madness.
- Wrong Context Magic: After defeating a pair of Angels and doing her Messiah impression, Sabrina gains the ability to do things that simply aren't possible with Witch magic, like controlling the weather purely by willing it do so and immediately transporting objects over great distances. Hilda lampshades this by telling her that magic without words, reagents, or some form of sacrifice just shouldn't be possible.
Zelda Spellman
Zelda Phiona Spellman
Played By: Miranda Otto
Voiced By: Adriana Casas (Latin American Spanish), Mayumi Asano (Japanese)
"We are the Spellmans. That means we stand tall and do what is right"
The older of Sabrina's aunts, a devout follower of the Church of Night.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, Zelda (like her sister Hilda) was evil. In this adaptation, she is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Big Sister Bully: She constantly bullies and abuses Hilda, and has apparently done so since they were children.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: After marrying Father Blackwood, she's brainwashed using a spell to become a perfect House Wife, Stepford Wives style, and follows his orders without question, even harming Sabrina's plans. She's healed when Sabrina destroys her picture within a music box.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: As a devout follower of the Church of Night, Zelda's ideas about morality are... somewhat unconventional, to say the least.
- Cain and Abel: The Cain to Hilda's Abel, but played with. Unlike most examples, Zelda does go on to kill her sister often because she is easily resurrected and cares deeply for Hilda. In a nightmare where it seems Hilda genuinely died due to Zelda's actions, her reaction is to break down sobbing.
- Casual Kink: Out of the blue, Father Blackwood suggests that he and Zelda should flog each other as penance. She is into it.
- Character Development: Initially seems like a stereotypical Wicked Witch, as the first few episodes emphasize her cruelty to her sister and fanatical devotion to the Church of Night, but as the season progresses she shows more of a softer side and does several things that are frowned upon or even expressly forbidden by the Church, such as participating in the exorcism of Jesse Putnam, to protect Sabrina.
- In the back half of Season 1, she's much nicer to Hilda, fights against Father Blackwood's plans to rebuild the Church of Night using his own misogynistic tenets, and even helps fight the Dark Lord himself in the season finale to stop him from making Sabrina his queen and unleashing the apocalypse.
- Chekhov's Skill: During the Trial, it is brought up that both Hilda and Zelda are certified midwives. This comes up again when Lord Blackwood requests Zelda to deliver his and Lady Blackwood's child.
- Child Eater: In a nightmare induced by Batibat, she cooks a fat kid to serve to the Dark Lord and is heartbroken when he sounds it for Hilda's vegetable pie.
- Deadpan Snarker: All the time, but it's especially cutting when she's annoyed or hiding something.
- Dogs Are Dumb: Her basset hound familiar, Vinegar Tom, is implied to be fairly dim and subservient.
- Later averted when Hilda reveals that Vinegar Tom has been dead since 1989.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": As of Part 3, you do not want to call her "Lady Blackwood".
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Zelda is definitely not fond of mortals, but leaving all of the mortals in Greendale to die is too much even for her. She's the first to proclaim they will stay behind to protect them. Also, harrowing someone to death - which, given that Hilda is still alive, she never did - is something she will not stand for.
- Also, when Mr Kinkle tries to punch Harvey, she uses magic to stop it. Abuse is something which Zelda Spellman will not put up with!
- Despite being a devout Satanist, when Zelda learns that Satan is planning to make Sabrina his bride and unleash Hell on Earth, she's horrified and disgusted, and is the first to agree he needs to be stopped.
- Foil: To Madam Satan. Both women are devoted followers of the Dark Lord, elegant Ladies of Black Magic, and mentors to Sabrina. However, Madam Satan adopts a friendly and helpful facade while secretly corrupting Sabrina for her own ends. Zelda, on the other hand, comes across as brusque and uncaring, but honestly cares about Sabrina's welfare and, when push comes to shove, will defy the Church of Night to keep her family safe.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She sees herself as the responsible sibling to Hilda's foolish.
- The Fundamentalist: She is incredibly devoted to the Church of Night and the traditions, but even then she seems to not be fully on board with completely everything, hating the idea of Sabrina being sacrificed during the Feast of Feasts and disliking Father Blackwood's clear misogyny.
- Good Stepmother: She is becoming this to Prudence in part 2.
- I Am a Humanitarian: She makes numerous references to enjoying human flesh.
- In-Series Nickname: Sabrina and Ambrose both call her "Aunt(ie) Zee."
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Zelda is mean to no end a lot of times, but she does have a heart and dearly loves her family, and is always willing to help them in the many issues that their family faces through the show.
- Lady of Black Magic: She's by far the most elegant and sophisticated of all the witches in her coven, and only matched by Lord Blackwood in this regard. And also a competent witch on her own.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Sabrina might be Zelda's niece, but Zelda loves her as fiercely as if she were her own child. This is especially clear in "The Returned" when Sabrina telling her You're Not My Mother cuts Zelda to her core, and she self-flagellates to cope with the emotional pain of Sabrina's words.
- She still feels this way towards Sabrina even after finding out that Sabrina is actually the daughter of the Dark Lord himself as well as Edward in an "unholy trifecta".
- Mama Bear: She may be a Big Sister Bully to Hilda and fiercely devout member of the morally questionable Church of Night, but she is fiercely devoted to Sabrina. Lampshaded by Father Blackwood, when he notes that he'd forgotten how "maternal" Zelda can be. She's also shown to be this towards Blackwood's infant daughter after abducting her for her own safety.
- Marriage of Convenience: She agrees to marry Lord Blackwood to further her ambition and increase her power within the coven. Zelda outright laughs in Hilda's face when she suggests their marriage might be for love.
- Mind Rape: She's briefly a victim of it after marrying Father Blackwood, but she gets better thanks to Hilda and Sabrina.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In Batibat's nightmare, she's fooled into thinking she's killed Hilda for good, and all she can do is sob and wail that she treated her like hell-rot. While this prompts no significant change in behavior, Zelda is slightly less overbearing toward Hilda.
- No Immortal Inertia: When Sabrina's summoned to the Court of Witches, Zelda and Hilda lose their powers and start aging decades in a day. They get their magic and youth instantly restored when Sabrina wins her trial.
- Pet the Dog: In the fourth episode, after Hilda tells the ghosts of the children who were harrowed to death that she was harrowed by her own sister, Zelda sincerely apologizes for pushing her harrowing too far.
- Pretty in Mink: She usually wears a fox shawl on her shoulder.
- Regal Ringlets: Zelda wore this hairstyle when she was a student at the Academy.
- Rank Up: After Lilith takes over Hell and Blackwood's utter betrayal of the coven, she appoints herself as High Priestess.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Far more uptight and serious than her younger sister, and incredibly devoted to the Church of Night.
- Smoking Is Glamorous: She is rarely seen without a cigarette in her trademark holder. Even after she's shot in the abdomen, Zelda takes the time for a final puff of her cigarette before passing out.
- Would Hurt a Child: While an indisputable Mama Bear when it comes to family, Zelda (in her nightmare) easily kills a child and cooks him as an offering for the Dark Lord.
Hilda Spellman
Hildegard "Hilda" Antoinette Spellman
Played By: Lucy Davis
Voiced By: Diana Perez (Latin American Spanish), Yukiko Aruga (Japanese)
"Some days, some nights, I dream that I am walking into the Greendale woods at the peak of the dry season with a lit torch in each hand so that I can watch the whole forest burn."
The younger and nicer of Sabrina’s aunts.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, Hilda (like her sister Zelda) was evil. In this adaptation, she is a Nice Girl.
- Badass Adorable: Hilda is a sweet and meek Cool Old Lady who loves to bake and help her niece, but she is someone dangerous to underestimate. She has dealt with many dangers to her family by herself and has done so outstandingly, such as holding the school protected against the Red Angel of Death. In season 2, she goes head to head against the Council when they side with Blackwood, kills their leader when he tries to get sexual favors from her, scares off a witch hunter using her boyfriend's incubus and kills a woman for pissing off her sister too many times.
- Batman Gambit:
- Imagining that Shirley has already protected herself from magic of any kind that can harm her, to attack her, Hilda simply poisons her cookies, knowing that is something she's less likely to suspect, especially coming from the "weak" Hilda.
- Knowing that the Weird Sisters would torture Ambrose by throwing to him the bones of the chicken she just cooked, she gave them that idea, saying it would really break them, when she knew that Ambrose would get the cue and use the bones to create a Skeleton Key and run away from his cell.
- Berserk Button: Though she's a Friend to All Living Things and genuinely kind person, Hilda really, really, really hates bullies. If you're hurting someone weaker than you just because you can and Hilda finds out about it, God help you.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Despite appearing to be the meekest member of the family, she can be seriously nasty when pushed, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of balms and potions to help her. This is why, according to the official description, if you want to get a potion to do with manipulating love, you go to Hilda and from Zelda you can just spite someone - spite is all well and good, but breaking someone by breaking their love is a much more dangerous way to do things.Hilda: So, folks tend to get the wrong impression of me. They always think I'm meek and mild, always the bridesmaid never the bride. But I am gonna tell you a little secret about me: I love my sister. But as Satan as my witness, if you hurt my family, there will be heaven to pay.
- And indeed, Shirley does pay for her treatment of Zelda. Right after Hilda says the above quote, she cheerfully informs Shirley that she fed her poisoned cookies, and Shirley promptly falls over dead.
- In Season 3, when Circe curses Hilda into becoming a spider monster, once she's recovered she confronts Circe with a voodoo doll she made of her. And starts to twist and break it.
- Body Horror: In Part 3 she's cursed by Circe slowly transform into a spider-like creature, complete with carnivorous Horror Hunger.
- Boring, but Practical: Sabrina and Zelda possess much flashier powers than Hilda, who is "just" a White Mage with a knowledge of potions, salves, and healing spells. But those potions and salves are probably used the most out of any type of magic on the show—after all, everyone gets hurt at some point.
- Hilda's powers as a herbalist are also incredibly helpful in maintaining The Masquerade—in one episode, she casually remarks that can she whip up shortbread cookies that cause Laser-Guided Amnesia, making people forget the last twenty-four hours.
- When faced with some Jerk Jock bullies teasing Theo, Hilda doesn't bother with any kind of incantation or spell—she simply reads their minds, finds some traumatic events, and lets a speech and their own Freudian Excuses do the rest. No point in wasting energy summoning demons when people's personal demons are much more effective.
- Hilda also carries this philosophy in life. Upon discovering a ghost menacing Zelda, it's Hilda who quickly summons, binds, and communicates with the spirit, easily laying it to rest. When she learns that the ghost was sent by Zelda's rival Shirley, her idea of revenge is to simply sit Shirley down over some tea and cookies to discuss the matter. Cookies that she laced with cyanide. Hilda correctly guessed that Shirley would be protecting herself against all forms of magic and went with fatal poison instead. Again, not particularly flashy, but they sure got the job done.
- When the Darkness, an Eldritch Abomination, first manifests in the Academy, Zelda tries to hold it off with a speech and ward of protection, but the creature is easily able to prey on her insecurities and leave her helpless. Then Hilda marches in carrying nothing but a candelabra, and she dismisses the beast without any fuss beyond a simple paralysis spell.
- Cain and Abel: The Abel to her sister's Cain. This is played with that Hilda has been killed by Zelda many times, but is always resurrected and the sisters have an unhealthy but ultimately loving relationship.
- Character Development: Through the first season, she grows a spine and starts wanting to sever the unhealthy connection she has to her sister, which includes to start dating her boss, Dr. Cerberus and deciding to move out of the room the two share.
- Covert Pervert: She's introduced as a centuries-old virgin who enjoys saucy romance novels but becomes horrendously awkward at the very mention of s-e-x in real life. And then it turns out that her work crush is possessed by an incubus and if this relationship is going anywhere, she's going to have to chain him down every time they get intimate. In later episodes, it's abundantly clear that they're both 110% okay with this.
- Disappointed in You: She was very disappointed in Sabrina after she disobeyed Hilda and tried to resurrect Tommy Kinkle and even doing it wrong because she also resurrected the witch who was sacrificed for the ritual.
- Freudian Excuse: Her hatred of bullies and desire to protect their victims likely stems from her own situation: Zelda bullies and abuses her endlessly, so Hilda wants to prevent that from happening to other people. It's suggested that standing up for others eventually gives Hilda the courage to do the same for herself.
- Friend to Bugs: Her familiars are all spiders.
- The Heretic: She lets her own moral compass and her love for Sabrina lead her actions instead of the teachings of the Church of Night. This leads to her excommunication early on in the series.
- Granny Classic: Even thought she is not a grandmother, she fits this trope because of her sweet nature. And the fact that her hobbies are baking, reading, and knitting.
- Humanoid Abomination: Under Circe's curse, Hilda becomes a Cronenberg spider-woman. She grows mandibles over her mouth, her hands become spider appendages, she grows spider legs from her mouth, and eyes all over her face.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: She hints to Sabrina she didn't want to become a witch, but when she was young it was the only option available to women.
- Nice Girl: One of the nicest witches in the series and far more empathetic than her sister.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: The more light-hearted of Sabrina's two aunts, and the one more willing to go against standard protocol for the Church of Night.
- Spider Swarm: Her familiars are a group of spiders. Although they appear rarely, they seem to attack as a swarm and use their webs often. In the season 2 finale, she kills the head of the Council on the spot when all her spiders turn him into a cocoon.
- Stepford Smiler: She doesn't like many of the traditions that go with a witch's life, and she confesses to Sabrina that she's dreamed of burning down the Greendale woods; very likely she didn't want to become a witch in the first place, but had no other options.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: As a great cook and baker, Hilda can incorporate spells into her cooking that essentially work as this. She has made a cake that works as a Truth Serum, eggnog that makes alcoholics quit drinking, and so on. She also does things the mundane way, as in season 2: after correctly predicting that Shirley had protected herself against spells, Hilda puts normal poison in her cookies to get rid of her.
- Telepathy: Hilda is shown to be able to read minds, or at least is an extremely good judge of character that would make Sherlock Holmes yell "Witchcraft!!!". She's reads two of Theo's bullies and by their reactions correctly deducts that one had something terrible happen to him when he was eleven, and the other is "in lust" with his jock friend.
- Tranquil Fury: Hilda almost never raises her voice, even when she's delivering horrific threats, taking control of a situation, or outright murdering people. At times it makes her scarier than the much-louder Zelda.
- Underestimating Badassery: She is often on the receiving end of this. Due to her loving and meek nature, she often gets written off, but she is still a strong witch from a family of very good witches. She has managed to deal with several threats with wits and skill without exceptional strength.
- White Mage: Hilda is a specialist in healing potions and balms to a plethora of illnesses and curses. She is often called by witches who need some kind of treatment.
Ambrose Spellman
Ambrose Spellman
Played By: Chance Perdomo
Voiced By: Jun'ei Ueki (Japanese)
Sabrina’s cousin who is serving a house arrest at the mortuary.
- Adaptational Heroism: He is portrayed as being much nicer and sympathetic than his comic book counterpart.
- All Gays are Promiscuous: Luke and Ambrose jumping straight into bed (including the requisite ripping of each other's clothes off) seems to be this. However, in a latter episode Nick explains that witches and warlocks don't really fall in love, so sex and lust are the next best thing. Also, Ambrose has been under house arrest for 70 years, so there's that.
- Autocannibalism: Dissects himself and eats his own heart in Batibat's nightmare then complains that it tastes bitter.
- Autopsy Snack Time: The Animated Credits Opening has him drinking a coffee while working on a corpse.
- Composite Character: He's named after Sabrina's cousin from the earlier comics but takes Salem's role from the 90s sitcom as Sabrina's snarky confidant as well as Salem's background as a warlock being punished for breaking the rules of the magic world. Subverted compared to the comics, where this was his actual role, since Salem only got that role in the 90s series.
- The Confidant: To Sabrina. When she needs a sounding board for her plans or help with anything magical, she usually goes to Ambrose first.
- Conflicting Loyalty: While he loves his family dearly, Father Blackwood plays with his mind a lot and ends up getting onto his good side, manipulating him into sometimes being even against Sabrina herself. This ends quickly when he realizes he is just being used.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much takes over Salem's role as the Spellman house's resident snark master.
- Frame-Up: He's framed for the murder of the Antipope. While he technically did commit it, he was controlled by Father Blackwood all along and has no memory of what was happening during that time.
- Everyone Has Standards: He is enjoying partaking in Father Blackwood's club for men and dislikes the idea of Sabrina as Top Boy, though not because she's a girl, but because she truly holds very little respect for the rites and traditions that the position is supposed to uphold, and is very disturbed when Father Blackwood serves a blow-up doll's head modeled after Sabrina during the party.
- Mr. Fanservice: He spends most of his time lounging around the house in a bathrobe and occasionally doesn't bother to put a shirt on underneath. Additionally after sleeping with Luke he wakes up the next day and wanders around in nothing but his underwear.
- Necromancer: Offers to resurrect a dead bat in the first episode but Zelda tells him there will be none of his necromancy. This is later played with in that he may do necromancy on animals, but abhors necromancy with people, saying that it's the darkest kind of magic.
- Not Helping Your Case: While Sabrina, Hilda and Nick are trying to come up with a way to keep him safe after being framed by the Antipope's death, Ambrose comes back entirely to try to murder Blackwood in public before the entire Coven and is captured.
- The Smart Guy: Throughout the series, Ambrose often demonstrates knowledge of very obscure witch and supernatural lore.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Calls Sabrina out big time for trying to cheat the laws of life and death to resurrect Tommy without sacrificing a life in exchange. All he can really say is I Warned You when she doesn't listen.Ambrose: Why must you continue to insist that the universe owes you special privileges?!
Salem
Salem
Voiced by: Luke Cook (season 4 episode 7)
A wild forest goblin who becomes Sabrina's loyal familiar, assuming the form of a black cat.
- Adaptational Badass: If push comes to shove, Salem can revert back to his goblin form, making him quite dangerous in a fight.
- Adaptation Species Change: In the comics and most versions, Salem was a warlock who was turned into a cat as punishment by the Witches' Council. In this adaptation, he is a wild goblin from the woods who answers Sabrina's call for a familiar and can change between cat and goblin forms at will.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: He's a lot more loyal and proactive than most familiars because Sabrina made a contract with him as an equal rather than forcing him into servitude like witches normally do.
- Decomposite Character: His role from the 90s sitcom as Sabrina's snarky confidant and his background as a warlock being punished for breaking the rules of the magic world were given to Ambrose Spellman. As a result, Salem has been downgraded from a warlock to a goblin who has taken the role of a familiar.
- Demoted to Extra: "Extra" may be pushing it but he does play a much smaller role than in the comics, 90s series, and other versions largely due to Kiernan Shipka being allergic to cats. Most of his role as Sabrina's confidant and ally has been transposed to Ambrose instead.
- The Fair Folk: Salem's true form is a forest goblin, though he disguises himself as a black cat. If need be, he can revert to his true form to protect Sabrina.
- Team Pet: Despite both Hilda and Zelda having familiars, Salem is the only one who gets any "lines" in the show. Hilda's spiders appear in a single scene and Zelda's basset hound familiar Vinegar Tom is only onscreen for a few seconds initially.
- The Voiceless: Unlike the other versions, Salem in this adaptation does not talk after making his pact with Sabrina.
Edward Spellman
Edward Spellman
Played by: Georgie Daburas
Sabrina’s late father and High Priest of the Church of Night. He wanted to reform the church of night to a more progressive Coven, one of his key tenants was mingling of Mortals and Witches.
- The Ace: Edward was ridiculously good at everything he did: brilliant scholar and warlock, High Priest, you name it. Blackwood was envious of him, and Nick modeled his magical studies on Edward's work.
- Ambiguously Evil: He secretly had Sabrina's name written down in the Book of the Beast as a baby without anyone but Zelda knowing, nearly damning Sabrina to service to Satan. And yet, at her baptism, Sabrina has a vision of both Edward and Diana telling her to not go through with it. Whether he had a change of heart later or what is currently unknown.
- There's a small hint in the series that, just maybe, Edward did know what his wife had done - namely baptizing Sabrina in the Catholic Church first - and that he and Diana were in on it and they just never told the sisters in an attempt to stop the Dark Lord from obtaining Sabrina.
- With the reveal of Satan's endgame, it is more than likely he (as a spirit) realized that he, his wife and the future child were used for a twisted escape clause.
- Big Brother Instinct: Little brother variant; when Blackwood asked for Zelda's hand in marriage (the first time), Edward refused. Considering how much of a misogynist Blackwood is (and the events of Season 2), Edward did the right thing in refusing to let his big sister to get hurt that way.
- Complexity Addiction: Edward appears to have been fond of complicated planning. To wit...
- When Madam Satan comes up with the convoluted cover story that she was Edward’s former secretary whom he asked to secretly watch over Sabrina, but without letting her aunts know, Zelda immediately believes it as the kind of thing Edward would do.
- Instead of sealing the sleep demon Batibat in a simple jar, he imprisoned her in the overly complicated magical puzzle box he created as a thesis, one that several people have been trying to open ever since.
- Credit to him - it took his own daughter, who is as intelligent as he is to open the damn thing!
- Internal Reformist: As High Priest of the Church of Night, he sought to reform it to tone down its more outright evil aspects.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: To say that the witch community didn’t take his marriage to a mortal well would be a massive understatement.
- Posthumous Character: He is long dead by the time the series begins, but his presence is still very much felt.
- White Sheep: To his coven, as he intended to reform it and he banned the Feast of Feasts. His studies were considered heretical, and of course, him marrying Diana.
Diana Spellman
Diana Regina Sawyer-Spellman
Played by: Annette Reilly
"The Saint Lucia took my right hand, the demon Lucy took my left, I wear their crown on this the longest of nights and until the dawn remakes the world, I speak with their authority."
Sabrina’s late mother and a mortal woman.
- Badass Boast: She delivers one when Gryla asks with whose authority's she decides she'll be the one to judge who gets to keep baby Leticia.
- Crazy-Prepared: She had Sabrina baptized in the Catholic Church a couple of days after she was born as a precaution against the Dark Lord staking any claim to her soul without her say so.
- Death by Adaptation: Although this is actually a better fate than her comic book counterpart.
- Posthumous Character: She is long dead by the time the series begins.
- Properly Paranoid: Her decision to have her newborn Sabrina baptized is treated as this by the coven, but considering Edward tried to sign her soul over to Satan not two days after (and how desperate the Devil and Church of Night are to get her in their clutches), she had every right to be afraid.
- Her fear that the child might not be Edward's.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Downplayed. Diana tells Sabrina that she has followed Edward through the Path of Night as far as she could, just so the two could be together, but that it was an extremely hard path, and that she would not wish it upon any other human when Sabrina asks her for advice about her situation with Harvey.
- Unfinished Business: She had stayed in Limbo for a period, having the unfinished business of never being sure whether Sabrina was being correctly being taken care of. She was put to rest properly in "A Midwinter's Tale", seeing Zelda and Hilda take care of her properly.
