Earlier this month, The Satanic Temple sued Netflix and Warner Brothers for $150 million in copyright infringement after its supernatural drama series, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, featured a statue nearly identical to the Temple’s trademark Baphomet statue.
The lawsuit seemed unfortunate since both the Temple and Sabrina are LGBTQ-friendly and interested in worshipping The Dark Lord. But praise Satan: They’ve reached a settlement.
The statue in question graces the lobby of The Academy of Unseen Arts, the magical school where the show’s heroine studies.
The Temple originally sued because the statue is basically the same as the one that they use to publicly promote their work: a statue of a winged, enthroned, goat-headed idol with two young children at its sides.
When the series premiered, Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves said that his organization would take legal action against Netflix and Warner Brothers for “appropriating our copyrighted monument design to promote their asinine Satanic Panic fiction.”
For purposes of comparison… pic.twitter.com/AZJvmq1Cks
— Lucien Greaves (@LucienGreaves) October 30, 2018
Part of their displeasure came from the show’s depiction of Satanists as a deceitful, cannibalistic, bloodthirsty and cruel lot whose ritualistic beliefs are just as rigidly dogmatic as conservative Christianity.
But the Satanic Temple doesn’t even believe in the Devil or anything supernatural. Rather, they employ Satan as a symbol for “opposition to arbitrary authority, forever defending personal sovereignty even in the face of insurmountable odds.”
The Temple uses the Baphomet statue as a way to challenge conservatives who erect religious monuments on public grounds.
Related: This gay couple hired a company to create wedding programs. They received “Satan” pamphlets instead.
Announcing the settlement of their lawsuit, Stuart de Haan, attorney for The Satanic Temple, wrote, “The Satanic Temple is pleased to announce that the lawsuit it recently filed against Warner Bros. and Netflix has been amicably settled.”
He said old episodes featuring the statue will add credits acknowledging “the unique elements of the Satanic Temple’s Baphomet statue. Future episodes with the statue will be covered under “remaining terms of the settlement [which] are subject to a confidentiality agreement.”
We’re happy to hear this as both groups are LGBTQ-inclusive. Sabrina featured a genderqueer character alongside some pansexual ones, and The Satanic Temple has long trolled anti-LGBTQ conservatives, even conducting a “Pink Mass” over the grave of Fred Phelps’ mother in a ritual meant to posthumously turn her gay. (Fred Phelps was the founder of the “God Hates Fags” Westboro Baptist Church.)
Herman75
Praze Jeebuz.
Crystix
Hellelujah!
Chrisk
Good for them:-$
Chrisk
The shows actually quite good. I’m sorry that they depicted Satanists in such a dark light though. Lol
swamp bubble
It’s more positively than any show/movie I can think of, I actually think it’s in the spirit of laveyan satanism, where the dark lord is a stand-in for a traditional god, as the show’s version of satanism mimics Christianity.
Catholicslutbox
150? all other news outlets say it was only 50.
So they didn’t get any money? just credit? or is that information “confidential?”
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Am definitely on Satan’s side. I love thinking about the absolute shock when evangical right wing smcubags will get after they burn out their vile mortal coil and realize how they lived their miserable hatefilled lives destined them to be greeted personally by Satan
spiralx
The reality is rather different to the simplistic nonsense perpetrated by the Jew-ish-based faiths, of course. But as a TV series, “Sabrina” does OK. The fact that the Satanic Temple finds itself *statue-esqly speaking) equivalent to one, doesn’t say much for it, now does it.
dwes09
Jew-ish!? The “simplistic nonsense” is entirely christian, and you are clearly totally ignorant of Judaism (you seem a bit simplistic and nonsensical, assuming your imagination about other cultures to be real), a religion that does not believe in the Christian “Satan”, nor pay any attention to afterlife in either heaven or “hell”.
As for the Baphomet statue, that image is hardly exclusive to the Satanic Temple, being used by many in many ways. i had seen it long before the Satanists (whose work and attitude i generally love) produced that statue. It thus seems odd to me that they would go after this show in such a petty way.
misterjack
I’m glad the Satanists won. They seem pretty cool and with a great sense of humor. LOVE how they troll the XStains!
Crystix
I think they both won. Sounds like the settlement satisfies all parties and got both groups lots of news coverage.