If orange is the new black, then witch is the new vampire as the spell-casting, broomstick-riding, cat-loving ladies are suddenly TV’s supernatural archetype du juor.
With “American Horror Story: Coven” and “Witches of East End” already on the air, it’s no surprise CBS wants in on the action, but its proposed reboot of the not-too-distant-past witch series “Charmed” is getting the evil eye from two of that show’s stars, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan.
“Charmed” aired on the WB from 1998 to 2006 and starred Milano, McGowan, Holly Marie Combs and Shannen Doherty (for three seasons) as witchy sisters who work to protect humanity from various nasty magical threats, including demons.
The eight-season run was one of the WB’s longest-lived TV shows and notable for being the rare network series with an all-female lead cast.
With the show’s continued popularity even after its ending, it’s no surprise that someone would aim to bring it back to the air. But a reboot means younger (cheaper) talent, with no starring place for the show’s original witches. Something that doesn’t set well with the first set of Halliwell sisters.
Milano, who currently appears on the ABC series “Mistresses” and the Lifetime reality series “Project Runway: All Stars,” tweeted her frustrations to her fans, writing, “The thing about them doing a charmed reboot is … it just … it feels like yesterday. It feels too close.”
McGowan, who recently appeared on the ABC series “Once Upon a Time,” also wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of someone else filing her shoes, even if those shoes didn’t show up on the original series until Season 4 (she replaced Doherty as a Halliwell half-sister).
“They really are running out of ideas in Hollywood,” she wrote. She followed it up with “lame lame lame lamertons,” which sounds like some kind of spell incantation.
The “Charmed” reboot in development at CBS joins another high-profile reboot in development at NBC: “Murder, She Wrote,” with Octavia Spencer replacing the original star, Angela Lansbury. However, Lansbury has reserved comment on the matter.
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