Time to check back into the witching hour. The CW is looking to reboot Charmed with a retro twist.
Following a prolonged negotiation, the network is reteaming with Jane the Virgin showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman for the project and the drama is described as a reimagining of the original TV series set in 1976. The reboot will be connected to the original series in some fashion, though it’s not entirely clear at this point how that will be.
Jane the Virgin writers Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin created the story. The script will be written by O’Toole and Rardin. Propagate Content’s Ben Silverman, who exec produces Jane alongside O’Toole, Rardin and Urman, will serve in the same capacity. Jane director Brad Silberling will also exec produce and direct the pilot.
The Charmed reboot comes more than three years after CBS announced plans to remake the original series, which ran on The WB Network for eight seasons, from 1998-2006, and starred Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan.
The original was created by Constance M. Burge and exec produced by Aaron Spelling. CBS Television Studios, who owns the rights to Spelling’s vast TV library, was attached to exec produce the CBS reboot in 2013. That project hailed from Party of Five co-creator Chris Keyser and Sydney Sidner.
The CBS reboot, which never went beyond the development stage, did not receive support from original stars Milano and McGowan.Milano said “The thing about them doing a #charmed reboot is… it just… it feels like yesterday. It feels too close.” McGowan also thought the project lacked originality saying “They really are running out of ideas in Hollywood: lame lame lame lamertons.”
For The CW, the Charmed reboot comes about as the younger-skewing network is poised to say farewell to The Vampire Diaries with the future of its spinoff, The Originals, unclear without its parent show. Charmed also marks the latest reboot in the works for The CW, which is already prepping Dynasty with The O.C. grads Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage.
