Rumours of a remake of your favourite late 90s, early 2000s supernatural series Charmed have been circulating for some time now. But with the CW network’s announcement that a pilot has been ordered, one of the long serving witches – Holly Marie Combs who played the sensible one, Piper – has taken to Twitter to voice her unflinching disapproval.
To herald the new project, the network released a statement promising a, “fierce, funny, feminist reboot of the original series centering on three sisters in a college town who discover they are witches.” Holly Marie is not buying it.
On Twitter she wrote, “Here’s the thing. Until you ask us to rewrite it like Brad Kern did weekly don’t even think of capitalizing on our hard work. Charmed belongs to the 4 of us, our vast amount of writers, crews and predominantly the fans. FYI you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp. So bye.”
She added, “And another thing. Reboots or remakes, as we used to call them, usually have storylines so similar to the original that they are legally required to use the same title and buy the rights to that title. If it’s not similar than it’s just another show. A new show with a new title.”
And in response to the idea that the show in fact needs a more feminist plot than it delivered 20 years ago, particularly in light of Rose McGowan and Alyssa Milano’s’ recent, brave involvement in the #MeToo movement, she wrote, “While some may not get why I take issue with the network that didn’t want to renew Charmed 12 years ago ‘reimagining’ it now let me just say I understand it perfectly. Also this kinda stuff given all that Rose and Alyssa have done lately…um no. Just No”.
Looks like our dreams of the original cast starring as wisened witches in the new show won’t become a reality.