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Tiffani Thiessen is running a school full of teenage witches, and Devon Sawa is one of the teachers. Well, that is one way to get the grown-ups interested in a new teen drama.
Coven Academy begins streaming October 2 on Disney+ and Hulu, following its October 1 Freeform premiere. The full season is arriving together, according to Disney’s announcement, so there is no weekly wait to keep the story moving.
And if “21 chapters” makes this sound like an enormous television commitment, there is a useful little distinction: these are short chapters. Creator Tim Federle says the whole binge runs more than five hours.
What is Coven Academy about?
The series takes place at a magical boarding school in New Orleans. Malina Weissman plays Briar, a New Yorker who discovers she is a witch and arrives with questions about what happened to her mother.
Miss Graves, played by Thiessen, has some answers. She also has an assignment for Briar: form a coven with classmates Sasha and Tegan.
That would be Jordan Leftwich as the mind-reading Sasha and Ora Duplass as Tegan, whose magic involves bending time. Malachi Barton plays warlock Jake, while Louis Thresher plays Ollie, a newly turned vampire. Apparently, ordinary school crushes were not complicated enough.
The premise mixes supernatural danger with secrets and forbidden romance. Disney+ lists the show as TV-PG V, worth checking before making it the family’s next Halloween watch.
The cast is doing some very specific nostalgia work
Thiessen’s Miss Graves is the head of the school, while Sawa guest-stars as warlock professor Mr. Cole. The adults have their own history here: Disney’s behind-the-scenes feature explains that Miss Graves attended the academy and once belonged to a coven herself.
Federle, who created High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, cites Charmed, The Craft and The Vampire Diaries among his supernatural touchstones. That gives you a better idea of the ingredients than “another school show.”
For viewers in the U.S., the full season is available through Disney+, Hulu and Freeform on Demand starting October 2. The boarding-school secrets can wait until you have snacks. The next chapter does not have to.
