Many, many moons have passed since the premiere of CW’s 2018 Charmed reboot, which channels some of the magic of the original Halliwell sisters into the Vera-Vaughn trio. Developed by Jane The Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman, Jessica O’Toole, and Amy Rardin, the retelling offers a twist on the original lore while centering on a three Afro Latina sisters. While Urman’s Charmed garnered both praise and criticism from old and new fans alike, no detractors have been more vocal than original cast members. Holly Marie Combs has remained especially critical, once accusing the new cast and crew of capitalizing off of the work of the original folks involved. (One could probably argue that every reboot is designed to somewhat benefit off of the legacy of its source material, but we’ll put that point in our back pocket for now.)
Though enough time has passed for the current series to find its audience and pick up a season three renewal, some of alumni still feel a need to flaunt their disapproval with the slightest bit of provocation. Recently, a video of Combs and her fellow Halliwell sister Rose McGowan surfaced, showing the two former co-stars trashing the reboot in response to a fan’s question about the original series leaving Netflix. “But it sucks,” McGowen says, referencing the reboot. “I haven’t seen it, I can’t say that. I’ve never seen it…But I’m happy that people have jobs. But it can still suck.” Combs laughed along without further comment.
On Monday, Sarah Jeffery took to Twitter to defend her show and speak out against McGowan’s comments. “You know, I saw this earlier and I refrained from saying anything,” Jeffery began. “I thought, better to just let them shout into the abyss. But I do want to say, I find it sad and quite frankly pathetic to see grown women behaving this way. I truly hope they find happiness elsewhere, and not in the form of putting down other WOC. I would be embarrassed to behave this way.” Naturally, Combs stoked the fire by responding to Jeffery’s defense with a tweet of her own: “That’s some bullshit. And a lot of it. Clearly. People speaking, excuse me typing, derogatory accusations of a person’s character despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary because of a difference in opinions about a tv show is just plain wrong. And also personal gain honey.”
Though Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty have expressed their concerns with the reboot in the past, neither have chimed in further, nor have they revisited the issue since the release of this video. Jeffery’s costars Melanie Diaz and Madeleine Mantock have also refrained from commenting. Hopefully everyone is simply choosing to focus on something other than a series that shows no signs of stopping, for better or worse.