Charmed -- "Pilot" Showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman Discusses ‘Charmed’ Reboot Backlash [Video]

Showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman Discusses ‘Charmed’ Reboot Backlash [Video]

Charmed, Interviews, San Diego Comic-Con, Video

While attending San Diego Comic-Con, we had the chance to speak with Charmed showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman in a roundtable interview about the excitement and difficulties of bringing back the beloved, bewitching series with a new, modern take.

The rebooted series is set to premiere this fall on The CW. Since the moment it was announced, Charmed 2.0 has faced criticism from fans and former stars of the original series alike.

Snyder Urman, best known for Jane the Virgin, is a noted fan of the original series and knew going in that things might be tough.

Charmed poster the cw
Charmed — Pictured (L-R): Sarah Jeffery as Maggie Vera, Madeleine Mantock as Macy Vaughn and Melonie Diaz as Mel Vera — Photo: Jordon Nuttall/The CW — © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

“There was excitement to bring it back, and you’re always anxious because you know that there’s passionate fans. You want to both reassure them that you’re not messing with the original, but also pay homage to the original, but also do something new,” Snyder Urman said.

“So that is a tricky balance to achieve. You want to be mindful of all those things at the same time. We’re bringing it back because we were fans of the original too, so you always have a complicated relationship,” she continued. “And you also want to make sure that it’s not exactly the same, because that already exists!”

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The showrunner explained that she’d opted for a reboot rather than a sequel out of reverence for the original, which lasted for eight seasons and wrapped up on a very final, closed-ended note.

“The way I could respect it the most would be to not touch what they had,” she said.

By branching off and doing something completely new, while also paying homage to the original, Snyder Urman was also able to make the new series more inclusive and diverse.

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Charmed — “Pilot” — Pictured (L-R): Melonie Diaz as Mel Vera, Sarah Jeffery as Maggie Vera and Madeleine Mantock as Macy Vaughn — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

“I’m coming off of Jane the Virgin, which has been, for me, a watershed moment in terms of how I understand the importance of representation on screen and about seeing people that look like you,” Snyder Urman explained.

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“I always knew that on an intellectual level, but until I did Jane, I didn’t feel it until I got the emails about what that meant and the tweets.”

“So there was a very conscious effort to make [the Charmed reboot] different,” she continued. “We had seen four white witches, so frankly, we didn’t want to repeat that. We wanted this to be new heroes and a different family.”

Watch the full interview with Jennie Snyder Urman here:

Check out all of our coverage of San Diego Comic-Con here. There is a lot more to come!

The Charmed reboot premieres Sunday, October 14 at 9/8c on The CW.

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Caralynn is a freelance writer and editor, but most importantly, she is a diehard TV addict. A few of her current favorites are Mr. Robot, You're the Worst, iZombie, and The Vampire Diaries. She also writes about TV for Romper, The TV Junkies, and TV Fanatic.