Netflix’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch Series Finds Its Aunt Zelda

TV’s new Spellman family is one step closer to completion with the casting of Sabrina’s Aunt Zelda.

Australian actress Miranda Otto, whose small-screen credits include roles on Homeland and 24: Legacy, will play Zelda Spellman in Netflix’s still-untitled Sabrina the Teenage Witch project, TVLine has learned. Her official description is as follows: “Proud and devout, Zelda believes there is no greater honor than serving the Dark Lord as a member of the Church of Night. She is the family’s disciplinarian, fiercely protective of Sabrina and very much Cain to Hilda’s Abel.”

Otto, an official series regular, joins previously announced cast members Kiernan Shipka (as Sabrina), Lucy Davis (as Aunt Hilda), Jaz Sinclair (as Sabrina’s BFF Rosalind), Michelle Gomez (as Sabrina’s possessed teacher Mary Wardell) and Chance Perdomo (as Sabrina’s cousin Ambrose).

Based on the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic books — written by Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who is also helming the Netflix series — this new take on the iconic character “reimagines the origin and adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch as a dark coming-of-age story that traffics in horror, the occult and, of course, witchcraft. This adaptation finds Sabrina wrestling to reconcile her dual nature — half-witch, half-mortal — while standing against the evil forces that threaten her, her family and the daylight world humans inhabit.”

(Needless to say, this version won’t come with a laugh track.)

Your thoughts on the latest addition to the Spellman family tree? Drop ’em in a comment below.