The culture surrounding the setting of the CW’s reboot of ‘Charmed,’ and the cultural backgrounds of the three Latinx lead characters will heavily influence the new spin on the popular supernatural drama. Executive producer Amy Rardin was attending the Paley Fall TV Preview in Beverly Hills when she spoke about the importance of representation in the reboot.
Rardin said:
“We have a real Latinx witch in our writers’ room. Every culture has their own witchcraft traditions, and we really wanted to explore not just from a Salem witchcraft but all kinds of different witchcraft that happens all around the world.”
The ‘Charmed’ reboot will feature brujería, a certain form of Latinx witchcraft. For audiences familiar with the ‘Charmed’ of the late-1990s, they will see a new and unique set of powers among the new group of sisters played by Melonie Diaz, Sarah Jeffrey, and Madeleine Mantock. Jeffrey’s character, Maggie Vera, will have to ability to read minds, while the youngest sister (played by Alyssa Milano) in the original received the power of premonition instead. Of the change, Rardin said:
“[Maggie] is 18. So, [she’s] at a time when you’re worried about what everyone thinks about you.”
Executive producer Jessica O’Toole added:
“We didn’t want to make it too easy for them to solve things with magic, so I think we pulled back a little, which doesn’t mean that the power won’t evolve. Based on the original, the powers do evolve so that’s something we’ve had in the back of our minds as something we could get to.”
O’Toole explained that the show will “organically show the women handling current issues, without lecturing the audience. She added:
“Even before the election, we always wanted to explore that link between strong women and witchcraft.”
Mantock explained that it was necessary to explore these themes “because in this day and age you have to be upfront about which side you’re on.”
The ‘Charmed’ reboot will premiere October 14 on the CW!