How Hollywood Rebooted A Magical Series By Spitting On Fans And Pushing An Agenda

Reboots and remakes have been popular since the advent of color film in Hollywood, with a history of mixed success. Some remakes are embraced by the original cast, such as Netflix’s Lost in Space, which brought back the original stars from the 60s, is a great example, but then there’s the other end of the spectrum.

When The CW rebooted Charmed in 2018, fans were excited at first, but then more details came out about the series’ direction. The original cast then shared their feelings, which culminated in a social media campaign to prevent the show from ever airing.

The Power Of Three

Charmed (2018) follows two sisters and their half-sister as they learn about their magical nature and embrace their destiny as the Charmed Ones, protectors of humanity against the demons. The oldest, Macy (Madeline Mantock), has telekinesis just like the oldest of the original series, Prue (Shannon Doherty), except she also has a doctorate in molecular genetics. The middle sister, Mel (Melonie Diaz), can freeze time like OG middle child Piper (Holly Marie Combs), except Mel’s also a lesbian and a grad student in women’s studies. Maggie (Sarah Jeffrey) is the youngest, and just like Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), she has the powers of empathy and precognition.

The three stars are joined by their own White Lighter, essentially a guardian angel who helps the Charmed Ones, but after that, the similarities to the original hit series fall off. Charmed’s lore around The Source and even the Charmed Ones themselves is completely different, with the off-the-wall choice to make the fourth “Sister” not even a blood relation, but a woman, Kaela, who received a stem cell donation from Macy. When the original series introduced a fourth sister, Paige (Rose McGowan), she was at least still a half-sister

Misses The Point Of The Original

On paper, the change from three white women in San Francisco to three Latina women in Michigan is the type of representation that should fit in with Charmed’s message of female empowerment. It should have been a generational update that took the ball from the original stars and ran with it, except CBS Studios and The CW didn’t see it that way; instead, they decided to market the 2018 iteration as a “feminist reboot.” The original stars and fans of the Halliwell sisters were left confused over how the original, ground-breaking series wasn’t feminist. Did they even watch the original show?

Given how the sisters act towards one another in 2018’s Charmed, the answer to that is no, they didn’t watch the original. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe were sisters who happened to be witches, and while they often annoyed each other, it was clear that they loved each other and would often fight the forces of Hell for each other. Comparatively, Macy, Mel, and Maggie are positioned as witches who happen to be sisters. Instead of finding strength in the bond of family and sisterhood, the second trio comes across as roommates.

What hurts the series even more is that Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano, and Rose McGowan were never asked to come back for the reboot. McGowan said the reboot “sucks,” while Combs said “I will never understand what is fierce, funny, or feminist in creating a show that basically says the original actresses are too old to do a job they did 12 years ago.” Fans responded in kind, Season 1 of the Charmed reboot earning its highest ratings, an average of 1.8 million, thanks in large part to the pilot drawing in curious fans of the original, but they quickly turned away, and if you look on social media, it’s hard to find people who even watched Season 4.

It’s Not Charmed

The worst part of the reaction to 2018’s Charmed is that none of it is the fault of the new leads, all three of whom, Madeline Mantok, Melonie Diaz, and Sarah Jeffrey, bring the right level of sincerity, snark, and camp to every episode, but were let down by the actions of the studio. To their credit, they spoke up when the cast was being marketed as “Latina,” by pointing out that only one of them was Latina, Diaz, a fact that the studio never bothered to correct. There are even fun episodes to be found within the show, including Season 1’s “Witch Perfect” and Season 4’s “Be Kind. Rewind.”

When Charmed first hit the scene in 1998, it broke new ground as a fantasy series starring women, about women, and unashamed to tell stories that appealed to women. When Charmed 2018 debuted, the hard work was already done for them; it would have been nice if that had ever been acknowledged.

The original Charmed is streaming for free on Pluto (Seasons 4 through 8), or the complete series is available as part of your subscription on Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. 2018’s Charmed is only available on Netflix.