Netflix might be sued by Satanic Temple over ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s' Baphomet statue

31 October 2018, 16:16

The co-founder of the Satantic Temple is seeking legal action over the depiction of Baphomet in the Netflix series.

It's been less than a week and Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has already gained a huge legion of fans. From its incredible cast to its dark and twisty Satanic aesthetic, everyone is obsessed with Sabrina Spellman and the entire magical town of Greendale.

But, funnily enough, the actual Satan worshippers out there aren't living for it at all. In fact, a Satanic temple is now planning to sue Netflix for copyright infringement - and it's all thanks to a statue of Baphomet that appears in the TV show.

In CAOS, you'll have probably noticed that huge, slightly creepy, statue of a goat that resides in the middle of The Academy of Unseen Arts. That is a statue of Baphomet, a deity that has now become the symbol of Satanism.

Following the release of the Netflix series, Lucien Greaves, the cofounder for The Satanic Temple, tweeted that they would "take legal action" against the streaming service, claiming the show’s use of the Baphomet statue is too similar to their own version. He also claimed that the depiction of the statue is being used to promote ‘satanic panic’.

In the tweet, Greaves wrote, “Yes, we are taking legal action regarding #TheChillingAdventuresofSabrina appropriating our copyrighted monument design to promote their asinine Satanic Panic fiction.”

Greaves also confirmed that the group’s lawyer has sent a letter to Netflix. In a statement sent to Broadly, Malcolm Jarry, the temple’s cofounder, said the temple holds a copyright for the statue that was filed with the Library of Congress.

The statue seen in the show does looks pretty similar to the one created by The Satanic Temple and the most well-known drawing of Baphomet, which was created in 1856 by occultist Eliphas Levi. Despite Baphomet being a figure that's been depicted for more than a century, Jarry told Broadly that TST's depiction is "very distinct and has numerous prominent features that do not exist in any prior representation."

Before all the legal drama, CAOS' production designer Lisa Soper spoke about the the similarities between the show and the temple's statues with VICE, saying that it's “kind of a coincidence.”

"When you look at Baphomet, there's really only a couple of statues of him - which, they have their statue, and we've got our statue in the show," she said. "But it's no different from, in my opinion anyhow... from any other of the mass amounts of iterations of him that have been around."

Netflix has not yet responded to the claims.