A Satanic statue prominently featured in Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has become embroiled in controversy.
But fans of the adaptation of Sabrina the Teenage Witch aren't the ones raising hell.
According to SF Gate, Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves is "taking legal action" against the streaming service for "appropriating" its occult deity, Baphomet.
Greaves tweeted on Sunday about his beef with Netflix.
In the new series based on the Archie Comics book, Kiernan Shipka plays Sabrina Spellman, the titular Wicca-in-training, at the Academy of Unseen Arts.
Sabrina's adversary in the series resembles Baphomet, whose likeness is rendered in the form of a statue inside the academy.
"The issue isn't the appropriation of Satanic religious symbols to portray beliefs and activities that bear no relation to what the practitioners of Satanism believe," Greaves said in an email to SYFY WIRE.
"We don't own Satanism and we can only try to educate people as to what Satanism means to those who identify with it when we're countering irresponsible fictions that feed real-world moral panics."
Greaves explained that the group spent a year and half "designing and financing" the Baphomet monument that has become visually synonymous with the organization.
"To see it appropriated as 'the Sabrina monument' while associated with cannibalistic rites is unacceptable. We owe it to everybody who identifies with us to rectify this situation."
"It's distressing on the grounds that you have to worry about that association being made where people will see your monument and not know which preceded the other and thinking that you arbitrarily decided to go with the Sabrina design for your Baphomet monument, which rather cheapens our central icon."
Greaves is concerned that the show's depiction of the monument as something "evil" could incite panic among members within his group.
He further admonished the show, telling SF Gate, "It's deeply problematic to us."
"It's one thing that there's another ignorant television portrayal of a Satanic Panic-style Satanic cult that engages in cannibalism, but it is another thing that they've used our unique and copyrighted Baphomet monument as the central icon of that cult."
While both incarnations of Baphomet are undoubtedly derived from wood carvings dating back hundreds of years, as SYFY WIRE indicated, the resemblance is still uncanny.
But reactions to Greaves's litigation is divided.
Greaves continued airing his grievances.
Greaves asked that Netflix remove their image of Baphomet from their show and from all future seasons.
The streaming service has yet to issue a response to the threat of legal action.
