Satanic Temple sues Netflix and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

New to Netflix Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is facing a lawsuit over the statue of Baphomet used in the show. The Satanic Temple has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Netflix and Warner Bros for copying the statue fuelling “Satanic panic”. The group argue the Baphomet statue too closely resembles their own.

The lawsuit claims Chilling Adventures of Sabrina "benefit from and defame TST’s unique original expression (the “TST Baphomet with Children”) of the historic Baphomet, an androgynous goat-headed deity."

Co-founder and spokesperson for the Satanic Temple Lucien Greaves shared a comparison of the two statues on Twitter. The second image is taken from the Netflix original series in the Academy for witches and warlocks. The lawsuit claims four episodes of the Sabrina series feature the artwork.

For purposes of comparison... pic.twitter.com/AZJvmq1Cks

— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 30, 2018

Greaves said the statue was being “denigrated” by a similar monument which is worshipped by characters of the show. The group funded the statue of Baphomet through a crowdfunding campaign. The statue, which currently stands in Detroit, cost $100,000 to design and build.

Greaves believes the dark nature of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina dealing with murder, cannibalism and necromancy negatively affects peaceful satanists.

“It does really kind of normalise this notion that the only true meaning of this type of religious identification is one that can be associated with a patriarchal, cannibalistic cult,” Greaves told CNBC. “We’re so inundated with this anti-Satan fiction that a lot of people think it’s superfluous to pursue to a claim like this at all.”

Many people have argued the original design of Baphomet comes from French author Éliphas Lévi in 1856 and is not owned by the Satanic Temple. The design is for public domain.

However the Lévi sketch depicts Baphomet as a goat-headed figure with breasts reffering to the female half of Lillith. The Satantic Temple adapted the design showing a masculine chest. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina feature this adaption, as the devil and Lillith (also referred to as Madame Satan in the comics) are two separate characters in the series.