A Satanic group which sued Netflix and Warner Bros for $50m (£38m) over the new Sabrina series says it has “amicably” settled the lawsuit. The Satanic Temple claimed the series copied the group’s statue of the goat deity Baphomet.
It alleged the icon – similar to their own – appears in four episodes of the series.
The group said it’s settled the lawsuit but details will remain confidential.
The temple’s founder Lucien Greaves responded to the news on social media saying the case had been “over publicised”.
He went on: “I particularly loved the confused claim from the people who said we were ‘playing victim’, with the alternative being that we simply stand silent when we feel our work may have been exploited.” In a statement, the Satanic Temple said: “The unique elements of the Satanic Temple’s Baphomet statue have been acknowledged in the credits of episodes which have already been filmed.
“The remaining terms of the settlement are subject to a confidentiality agreement.” It said it does not worship Satan but instead works to “encourage benevolence and empathy among all people”. Netflix and Warner Bros have not made any public statement about the settlement. Founded in 2012, the group works to ensure the separation of church and state and holds Satan as a symbol of “opposition to arbitrary authority”.
With 15 official chapterhouses in the US, the group’s membership soared off the back of the election of Donald Trump in 2016. In a speech Mr Greaves said that the pre-election global following of around 100,000 had “thousands” of applications for new members overnight after the election.
Credit: BBC
