Charmed Reboot Set at The CW

Fans with fond memories of the comely coven showcased in the 1998-2006 supernatural series Charmed will soon get to welcome more toil and trouble with the news that the long-running rumors of a revival have finally been proven true. Indeed, The WB’s campy-but-beloved series is set for comeback with a reboot on the current network incarnation The CW that, while billed by the media as a “reboot,” is a quasi-prequel to the contemporary-set original series, set decades earlier with a fresh new cast.

News of the Charmed reboot (via TVLine) come with some intriguing details, notably The CW’s greenlight of a one-hour pilot. The network plan to keep its creative coalition in-house, announcing that the new series will be run by Jennie Snyder Urman, creator and executive producer of the network’s comedy Jane the Virgin. However, while the show will allegedly follow a similar formula to the original series, the setting will shift away from San Francisco, moving this new trio of benevolent witches over to a small New England town in 1976. Thus, should the reboot adhere to continuity, it will serve as a prequel to the original.

The original Charmed, created by Constance M Burge, launched in 1998 with a trio of sisters played by Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano who, upon arriving in their family’s ancestral home, unlock their latent powers as witches. However, that primary cast evolved as Doherty bowed out of the series in 2001, killing off her character, leaving a coven vacancy later filled by a surprise half-sister played by Rose McGowan. Would-be Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco would also become a late-series addition to the heroic witches in Season 8.

Currently, the unofficial character descriptions of the Charmed reboot cast consist of: “Tina,” an African-American who is close to earning her PhD., described as “whip-smart” and an eerily accurate judge of character. “Paige,” a sanguine, “curvy” Caucasian woman whose only aspiration in life is to marry a rich man and start a family. Finally, there’s “Annie,” a smart, but apparently irascible Caucasian woman who apparently deals with insecurities beneath her obdurate exterior.

The idea of a beloved property – in this case, Charmed– being rebooted is hardly an original narrative these days in the news cycle and will certainly be met with its fair share of pessimism. However, the network’s long-running genre-similar hit The Vampire Diaries is set to sign off and this new show will be in solid hands with Jennie Snyder Urman, who, besides Jane the Virgin, was also behind demographic-friendly television such as Emily Owens M.D., 90210, Lipstick Jungle and notably served as co-producer on the final season of Gilmore Girls.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the Charmed reboot comes together and how it will acknowledge its legacy to the original series, especially with its back-dated bicentennial setting.