'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' Trailer: Salem Is Scary When He Speaks

The sass-talking black cat Salem Saberhagen is perhaps the best part of [Sabrina the Teenage Witch’(https://www.inverse.com/article/49546-chilling-adventures-of-sabrina-netflix-trailer-brings-horror-and-laughter), so it’s kind of a shame that his counterpart in the new Chilling Adventures of Sabrina doesn’t seem to talk all that much. But in a new clip released by Netflix, the feline finally speaks, revealing that he’s way more than just a cat. He’s some kind of freaky-looking demon that looks a little bit like Ryuk from Death Note.

Netflix released the clip Thursday morning, and in it, the half-human, half-witch Sabrina Spellman notices some huge claw marks on the windowsill of an open window. “Sabrina!” a voice says from the shadows. “Who are you,” Sabrina says. “Show yourself.” That’s when Salem, in a looming demon form, creeps out from behind a folding screen. “I heard you calling in the woods,” he (or it?) says. “And I came.” Then he transforms into a very cute black cat and Sabrina is instantly in love with him.

We’d be a bit more skeptical, but I guess when you’re a witch, this isn’t all that outlandish to have some demon creature transform into a cute cat and then become your familiar.

In most versions of the story, Salem is a human who was transformed into a black cat after he tried to take over the world, but Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has retconned his origins just a little bit to fit in line with the show’s focus on the occult.

Without spoiling too much, we’ll say that salem’s role as Sabrina’s familiar throughout the series is to protect her, and it’s so vital that this cute cat hiss, confuse, and bamboozle Sabrina’s enemies that Vulture reports Netflix needed five different cats to share the role. But whether or not the character has any magical powers — or even that many speaking lines — remains to be seen.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will be released on Netflix on Friday, October 26, 2018.