Kiernan Shipka Was Almost Betty Cooper on "Riverdale” Instead of Lili Reinhart
We're all eagerly awaiting the premiere of Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on October 26, where we'll get to see Kiernan Shipka step into the role of Sabrina Spellman. But before taking on the role of everyone's favorite witch, the former Mad Men actor almost became another iconic character we can't get enough of: Riverdale's very own Betty Cooper.
On October 12, Riverdale and Sabrina creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Entertainment Weekly that he was so interested in working with Kiernan, that the idea of having her become part of the Archie reboot crossed his mind. “Kiernan was iconic in Mad Men, and I had even thought about her, I was like, ‘Oh I wonder if she’d ever do Betty,'” he said.
The part ultimately went to Lili Reinhart, who has fully taken the spotlight for her perfect portrayal of Betty. Luckily, a collaboration between Kiernan and Roberto still loomed on the horizon, and soon materialized in the form of the Sabrina remake. “When [Sabrina] moved from CW to Netflix, our casting director David Rapaport said, ‘By the way this is something Kiernan might be interested in,'” Aguirre-Sacasa told EW. “There was no script at the time, but from the second he said that, for me it was sort of like, ‘Okay she’s Sabrina. I’m writing this for Kiernan.'”
For awhile, however, Roberto still played with the idea of having the Sabrina and Riverdale worlds collide. On October 3, EW reported that the creator almost switched Riverdale's second season to take on horror and have Sabrina enter as the new villain, but decided it would be best to keep the towns of Riverdale and Greendale (where Sabrina is set) separate in the long-run. Um, can you even imagine how wild that cross-over would've been?
It's probably for the best that they didn't overlap in the end, because as Roberto said in an interview, Sabrina already has plenty of her own drama to deal with—which is exactly why he felt that the character was a much better fit for the 18-year-old Kiernan. “She felt like the right actor at the right age at the right point in her career and someone who was up for the challenge, because it’s grueling. She’s in practically every scene," Roberto explained. "But for me, Sabrina had to stand up to the Dark Lord, the devil, and these very formidable opponents and someone like Kiernan has the gravitas and the assuredness to be able to do that. I’d say she was my first choice for sure. For sure.”
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