Salem the cat from 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' was almost made a dog

26 October 2018, 16:26

By Nicky Idika

Are dogs as spooky as cats? Probably not. This would have been QUITE the change.

Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina premiered on Friday Oct. 26 and fans are already getting their thrills from the spooky new series. The new show, which has been brought to life by Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, differs greatly from the Melissa Joan Hart series,which ran in the late 90s and early 00s. One thing in the series that stayed the same, however, was Sabrina having a cat.

In Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Kiernan Shipka's character chooses her familiar, a cat, who Sabrina fans will recognise. Salem the cat has followed the character from her live action days, back to her animated days, and now on Netflix. One thing you might be surprised to find out is that Salem the Cat was nearly a dog this time around.

Can you imagine it?

The 90s iteration of Sabrina made Salem a fast-talking treasure trove of one liners. This time around, the actress playing the iconic witch was actually allergic to the real cat they intended to use.

Entertainment Weekly revealed back in September that Aguirre-Sacasa considered making Salem a dog. "I get a call that says, ‘Kiernan is allergic to the cat,’" Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa revealed to the publication. “It did go through my mind: Could Salem be a dog?”

Kiernan apparently broke out in hives while shooting the series and realised she was actually allergic to Salem. Thankfully, Kiernan pushed through to make things work with her four-legged co-star, though she did tell Vulture that “the cat is the one cast member [she did not] get along with.”

In the series, Salem is Sabrina's familiar and does tend to keep close to the character. We also have to admit, a black cat is much spookier than a dog. As far as we know, there are no superstitions about crossing paths with a beagle.

Now that we know that Salem was almost a dog, Aunt Zelda flipping to THIS page in episode 1 kind of feels like an Easter egg.

Besides, if Salem was a dog, we wouldn't have gotten the most iconic red carpet photos of all time.