Fans of the original Charmed have been unsure about what to expect in the CW’s upcoming reboot of the popular supernatural series, but after a screening of the premiere that took place at San Diego Comic-Con, it became clear that the show’s new stars are ready to shine.
The Charmed Ones
The premiere introduces us to the three new sisters who discover they are witches after their mother is mysteriously murdered. Oldest sister Macy (played by The Tomorrow People‘s Madeleine Mantock) is an extremely intelligent geneticist who was separated from her mother at birth. Middle sister Mel (Melonie Diaz) is a lesbian activist who is fighting to find out who killed her mother. Madison (Sarah Jeffrey) is the youngest sister who is more concerned with joining her college’s sorority than trying to hone her new powers.
Each woman brings something different to her role, but it is their charisma with one another that will really draw audiences in. Their personalities are all very different, with Jeffrey’s Madison standing out and bringing the laughs as a college student who vocally praises pilates when she successfully kicks a demon off of her.
Timeliness and Diversity Take Center Stage
The updated version of Charmed brings us into 2018 immediately, with Mel hanging posters that display the phrase “Time’s Up” in regards to a sexual assault case that’s currently underway in the college town where the series takes place. And when a man defends the accused professor, he exclaims that the whole thing is a “witch hunt” — both a nod to the phrase commonly used by those speaking out against the Me Too movement and, of course, the fact that the show’s characters are witches themselves.
And when it comes to diversity, the reboot leans all the way in. All three sisters are women of color and it’s instantly refreshing to see. Meanwhile, middle sister Mel is a lesbian, and while it’s fantastic to see the LGBT community represented, it’s even better that her sexuality is not made an issue — it’s simply who she is. The loudest cheer at the Comic-Con premiere screening came during the panel discussion about the LGBT representation.
“You can’t downplay the importance of seeing yourself on screen and seeing your relationships validated,” executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman told FANDOM at Comic-Con. “That was one of the things we were really mindful of in doing the reboot.”
“Beyond the fact that [Mel] has a girlfriend and is a gay woman, we’re then unpacking the layers of what makes her a person and who she is as a human being and that’s the most important thing to us,” she continued. “I think it’s about treating that relationship the same as you’re treating any heterosexual relationship and letting different characters be heroes is a big part of what I’m excited about.”
Snyder Urman promised that the new season will give us “soap, magic, and real horror,” and we’ll finally get to see what that entails when Charmed premieres on Sunday, October 14 right after Supergirl on the CW.
