Charm Disarmed: How Race Issues and Ego Put a Hex on My 'Charmed' Affection

Charmed, the original series from the 90s, was once one of my favorite comfort shows. Every week, I allowed myself to be swept away into the world of the powerful Halliwell Sisters, three San Francisco-based women known to fellow witches and demons everywhere as the all-powerful "Charmed Ones." Sadly, time and recent revelations about the WB/CW series have altered my feelings and keep me grounded in a new reality. While some may assume my issues lie with the contentious relationships between the show’s main cast – actresses Shannen Doherty (Prue Halliwell), Holly Marie Combs (Piper Halliwell), Alyssa Milano (Phoebe Halliwell), and Rose McGowan (Paige Matthews) – those actually fall on the tail end of my true grievance.

Originally broadcast on the WB and later, the CW, from October 1998 to May 2006, Charmed was monumental for female-led programming in the 90s and early 2000s. It became notable for cementing interest in Wicca, first explored to great effect in 1996's The Craft, and other pagan practices. The show also became notorious for alleged in-fighting behind the scenes.

Following the end of Charmed’s third season in 2001, Doherty infamously departed the series after a rumored feud with co-star Alyssa Milano. Rose McGowan would join the cast later that year as half-sister Paige Matthews, and remain with the show until its series finale. Along with the cast change, there were several behind-the-scene changes as well.

During a 2010 fan convention, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Armin Shimmerman shared his experience regarding some of those changes, and how they affected his time as a guest star during Charmed's fourth season. Let’s just say it wasn’t a positive experience.

“I hated [working] with the ladies of Bewitched – erm, Charmed,” he joked. “And there’s a reason why they were cast as witches.”

If only Shimmerman knew how bad things would get...

The argument of separating problematic artists from their art has been long controversial. In theory, it should be rather easy – common fans tend to have strong, emotional connections to the work created by these individuals and not necessarily the individuals themselves. However, there are a few instances where splitting the difference between art and artist is almost, if not completely, impossible.

While I’ve never had strong ties to most of the problematic stars we think of today, other than maybe Bill Cosby – and even that was more about The Cosby Show than the disgraced comedian himself – I understand the difficulty some feel with this practice. Since childhood, my identity has been strongly and passionately aligned with pop culture and the entertainment world. While the actions of Doherty, Milano, Combs, and McGowan that I will mention here pale in comparison to, let’s say, that of Cosby, R. Kelly, or any of the many men taken down by #MeToo, they still affect how I view both the series of Charmed and the cast as a whole.

The first blip of questionable activity came from Charmed starlet Holly Marie Combs around 2014. Combs, the mother of three sons, took to Twitter to join the conversation of #YesAllWomen, a social media campaign meant to raise the voices of women who were victims of domestic or male-influenced violence, and/or misogyny.

“#YesAllWomen - Violent video game makers take note,” Combs wrote. “Please. Parents take them away. Please. Virtual violence leads to actual violence.”

So, video game violence can trigger real-world violence, but playing on shows with multiple character deaths don't? Hello, Pot. This is Kettle… and you’re black AF.

All jokes aside, studies over the years have shown there is no firm correlation between violent video games and real-life violence. Ironically, Combs' first lead role was in a 1992 horror film, Dr. Giggles, a movie with multiple violent scenes. She then went on to kill demons with human-like appearances for eight years on Charmed. When she tweeted her #YesAllWomen statement, she was four seasons deep into her run on the teen drama, Pretty Little Liars, a shown known for the mysterious "A," a hidden figure from the past hell bent on revenge and murder.

Not to be outdone by their TV sister, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan found themselves called out in 2017 and 2018, respectively, over what some believed was performative activism from one (Milano) and anti-trans speech from the other (McGowan). They were also claims of both women amplifying their attempts at activism over those of Black, trans, and queer women.

As neither a woman nor a trans woman, I feel is not my place to share judgment on these matters. As a Black queer man, however, I can mention how often the mainstream media dimishes facts and rewrite narratives to give white women a boost on their already-large soapboxes. Meanwhile, women from marginalized communities are left scrambling to find any platform to have their own truths heard.

Interestingly, this leads me to the major point of my contention with the legacy of Charmed. For years, I’ve wanted to properly dive into this and break down how the actions of Combs, McGowan, and to some degree, Milano and Doherty, have changed the way I approach the show – and it all has to do with the Charmed reboot.

In 2018, after years of rumors and false starts, the CW officially greenlit the newest chapter of Charmed. The announcement came as surprise to many, but seemingly none more so than the actors of the original 1998 series. Doherty, who never returned to the flagship show after leaving in 2001, praised the development and gave a thoughtful critique of the reboot, which would feature three women of color in the lead roles.

“I’m intrigued by the idea that a new generation might be comforted, inspired like all you were,” Doherty shared with fans in January 2018. “Charmed helped us all in some way. I love Charmed, I [just] want it to be respected.”

The same could not be said for Combs, who clearly wasn't as hopeful or positive as Doherty was.

“Here’s the thing,” Combs expressed on Twitter, also in January 2018, “until you ask us to rewrite it like [showrunner] Brad Kern did weekly, don’t even think of capitalizing on our hard work. Charmed belongs to the 4 of us, our vast [number] of writers, crews, and predominantly the fans. FYI you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp. So, bye.”

(It should be noted that Kern became the sole Charmed showrunner after Constance M. Burge, the co-creator of Charmed, left her executive producer role before the start of Season 3. Burge had reportedly become increasingly frustrated over the direction the show was headed in.)

Combs would continue to speak her mind in March of 2018 after an article from Yahoo! News “misrepresented” her original comments.

“Let me say first that I appreciate the jobs and opportunities the Charmed reboot has created,” Combs began. “But I will never understand what is fierce, funny, or feminist in creating a show that says the original actresses are too old to do a job they did 12 years ago. I hope the new show is far better than the marketing, so the true legacy does remain.”

By this time, the leads of the Charmed reboot had been announced. Actresses Sarah Jeffery, Melonie Diaz, and Madeleine Mantock would portray sisters Maggie and Mel Vera, and Macy Vaughn, respectively. Two months before its series premiere, Mantock touched on Combs’ aggressive comments with the Television Critics Association.

“Of course, you can’t help but feel disappointed [about Combs' comments] because I think the script is fantastic,” Mantock expressed. “I really hope she'll see it and like it.”

She went on to extend grace to Combs, acknowledging the actress' frustration and knowing that it related to the original Charmed being, “a big part of her life.”

Diaz, who also attended the TCA event, chose to focus on more positive mentions.

“There’s also a lot of positive stuff coming out [about the reboot], too,” she shared, “and I think that we’ve collectively made the [choice] to focus on that.”

The Charmed reboot debuted that October. It wasn’t an immediate success, but it did well enough to pick up an early second season renewal in January 2019. My interest in this new chapter faded quickly, but I was glad some had taken to the update. It was great to see three actresses of color as leads on a primetime series.

In October 2020, as the reboot was on hiatus, Combs and McGowan came together for an Instagram Live to, for lack of better phrasing, be haters.

“It sucks,” McGowan said as Combs was seen chuckling next to her. “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."

Since the reboot announcement, Combs always appeared to have time to take down the new series. Fans of the original Charmed would share their criticisms of the reboot with the actress on social media. In turn, she would take the bait easily; responding with an air of pretentiousness and under the pretense that fans wanted nothing more than to see the original Halliwells on screen once again.

Let me state outright that like Madeleine Mantock, I completely understand Combs’ attachment to the series and the role that made her famous. For years, Piper Halliwell was the character I most related to – not just because I loved her ability to freeze time (and later, speed up molecules), but because Piper was often lost in the shadow of her older and more powerful sibling. I knew that feeling well.

When my brother died in 2015, I felt even more connected to her character. Seeing Piper mourn the loss of Prue helped me heal from my own substantial loss. Combs gave herself and more to the character of Piper Halliwell for eight years. I cannot and will not negate her immense talent and dedication to the role.

With that expressed, Combs’ continued attacks on the Charmed reboot began to feel personal not just to the writers and producers – but to the three actresses simply trying to do their jobs. The first to speak publicly on this was Sarah Jeffery, who responded on Twitter about the childish display Combs and McGowan showed during their Instagram livestream.

“You know, I saw [the stream] earlier," she began. "I refrained from saying anything. I thought, [it’s] 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,” Jeffery went on, “and not in the form of putting down other WOC [Women of Color]. I would be embarrassed to behave this way. Peace and love to y’all."

Hours later, Combs would take to Twitter and fire back.

“That's some bullshit,” Combs began. “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 opinion about a TV show is just plain wrong. And also, personal gain honey."

I won’t even begin to figure out the “personal gain” mention in Combs’ response, but did she genuinely believe her laughter wasn't a cosign to McGowan's baseless diss? I’ll go even further and say Combs’ failure to do anything but laugh was far more childish than McGowan’s thoughts on the Charmed reboot. At least Rose, as the children like to say, stood ten toes on business.

It was clear Jeffery felt just as passionate about her work on the Charmed reboot, and her fellow cast and crew mates, as Combs felt about her own work on the original Charmed. Combs’ rebuttal to Jeffrey’s shutdown was a classic case of throwing stones and hiding one’s hands. Jeffrey had every right to respond as she did, and I applaud her for keeping her cool in the face of cowardice guarded by white privilege.

Yes, race will come up a lot during this piece. Consider yourself warned.

Going back to McGowan, she too felt the need to clap back to Jeffery, claiming on Instagram that she was "too busy fighting monsters and fighting for a massive cultural reset to notice who's in the reboot."

And yet, she seemed to have plenty of time for that Instagram Live mess. Sure, Jan.

McGowan went on to state that her feelings about the reboot had nothing to do with race.

“My quibble (Google it) is about [the] execs and producers [of the WB] network trading [in] on years of my work and name in such a cynical and obvious way — a money grab to cash in on the Charmed name.”

The same way Rose could've easily Googled Sarah's name? But I digress.

I’d like to take this time to share a woman’s perspective. In 2013, movie critic and internet personality Allison Pregler tasked herself with reviewing all eight seasons of the original Charmed (and its comic book follow-up) as part of her "Manic Episodes" series.

In her Charmed Season 6 review, Pregler touches on some of the alleged behind-the-scenes madness - including Armin Shimmerman’s fan convention comment - and speaks on Combs and Milano's new roles as producers starting in Season 5. You can hear her comments below (video credit to Allison Pregler - thank you!).

Pregler may have been speaking on things that occurred more than 20 years ago – 22, to be exact – but I believe it’s a good show of how even a small amount of power can corrupt. Somehow, all of this time later, Combs, Milano, and McGowan still feel they should be the first ones approached when Charmed is on the table.

Even with Combs and Milano’s producer credits (of which McGowan never received during her time on the show), such a title would never award them insight or weight to how CBS Television Studios – which owns the property – would proceed with the IP.

Would it have been nice if CBS Television reached out to the actresses prior to the reboot and invited them to help develop it? Sure, but they were not under any legal or personal obligation to do so. CBS Television Studios own the rights to Charmed, not the original actresses and not even the former showrunners, Brad Kern and Constance M. Burge.

Other than the title and ideas introduced in the original 1998 series, the reboot of Charmed was an entirely different production, with an entirely different story based around an entirely different set of characters and played by an entirely different cast. CBS Television had every right to do what they did with the property they legally own.

You may have noticed a lack of comments from Alyssa Milano regarding the reboot. She did speak on it in 2018, but her views were similar to that of fellow Charmed alum Shannen Doherty.

“I wish they would have come to us and we would have been involved since the beginning,” Milano said. “But having said that, I do hope that it reaches the newer generation and impacts that generation the way [our show] was able to do for its generation.”

Milano’s maturity about the matter was admirable. Nevertheless, it’s hard to hold her to a higher standard knowing what we do now about her alleged involvement behind Doherty’s firing and supposed bullying of her fellow cast mates.

After all the back-and-forth, which Combs mostly fueled herself, she then surprised everyone with a sudden 180. A little more than a week after her controversial Instagram Live stream with McGowan, she took to Twitter once again to call a cease-fire between the two casts.

“My Charmed friends,” she began, “I would like everyone to stop.”

Truth be told - and it will be told - is that our issues were and are at the corporate level. And we have the receipts. Just as the new cast were asked to be people they [weren’t], we were given ultimatums [which] were crazily unfair.

And I will say to the ladies of the reboot: Stick together. Negotiate together and know that the discourse between us, you guys, and [the] crews being discarded and replaced is what they bank on. Division. That is all. Blessed be.

I think I speak for many – or fine, maybe just myself – when I say, “Mother Wicca, what?!”

Not one word of that statement is an actual apology to the cast and crew of the Charmed reboot. Where is the acknowledgment for the continued immature actions Combs and McGowan perpetrated for months? How did these alleged unfair ultimatums regarding the OG Charmed relate to an entirely different cast and crew who never worked on Combs’ version?

Additionally, the division Combs speaks of didn’t come from anyone at CBS or even Warner Bros. It came directly from Holly Marie Combs and, at times, Rose McGowan. And if, by chance, the heads at CBS and/or Warner Bros. were truly banking on the old vs. new Charmed stars destroying one another, Combs fed into the destructive nature she hoped the reboot would avoid - and she did so on purpose.

If Holly Marie’s true target for her frustration were the corporate heads behind the Charmed franchise, then why was every one of her criticisms up to that point centered solely on the reboot itself, and not CBS or Warner Bros.?

Combs and McGowan only mentioned these media organizations by name after Sarah Jeffery shamed them for their frequent attacks. The truth is, Combs and McGowan lashed out at a group of people who hadn’t wronged them directly and had no say whatsoever in their dealings from a two-decade-old franchise. And when Combs realized how ridiculous and, dare I say, borderline racist she was coming across, she chose to hide behind her whiten – erm, sorry, wave her white flag, and play peacemaker.

It was bad enough seeing two actresses from one of my all-time favorite shows go on the attack against three women who respectfully followed in their footsteps – but as a Black fan, seeing them go after three POC actresses who never disregarded the original series or the big shoes they filled as the new Charmed ones was truly disheartening. Combs’ cowardly call for a ceasefire marked the end of my love for a series I’ve carried in my heart for more than half my life. Something Wicca this way goes, indeed.

In May of 2022, the Charmed reboot was canceled after four seasons. Some say the writing was on the wall for a while, and maybe that’s true. But perhaps they could’ve had a little more time to work out the kinks of the updated series had Combs and McGowan been more supportive from the start. But then again, Combs and McGowan weren’t the only attachments to the original series being loud and foolish.

On June 13, 2022; just three days after the final episode of the Charmed reboot, original series writer Curtis Kheel jumped in the fray on Twitter to kick everyone while they were down.

Kheel, touching on the last scene in the reboot episode, which saw the new Charmed Ones arriving at Halliwell Manor - the home of the original Charmed Ones - came up with a childish theory of what would happen next.

“Piper, Phoebe, and Paige vanquished the imposters right after they invaded Halliwell Manor,” he tweeted. “Then Piper blew up the portal to that other universe [and] quipped: ‘We wish them well.'”

That “quip” was another personal strike by way of Combs - it was a rehash of the first comment she made about the reboot on Twitter (seen above).

The next day, Kheel elaborated further on his bullsh– sorry, feelings.

“My problem with the Charmed reboot is that from Day One, it pretended like the original Charmed didn’t exist,” he tweeted. “Yet it borrowed a ton of ideas from it. We worked very hard on the OG series for many years [and] to disregard [us is both] offensive and disrespectful to us and our fans.”

From the start, the cast and crew of the reboot openly and repeatedly acknowledged the original Charmed and noted how special it was to the cast, crew, and fans alike. Even the final shot of the reboot is a nod to the original Charmed.

Responding to Kheel’s rambling, the Charmed reboot writers rightfully told him off, while still giving praise to the original series.

“Unlike with the OG version of the franchise, we had a strict ‘no assholes’ hiring policy in the writer’s room (Editor’s note: Haha!). We feel mostly sorry for these people because unlike them we actually like each other and had the best time.”

“And for the record, we love both versions. [This] is why we set out to create a cohesive universe. In our minds, there is zero competition in a long line of strong young witches tasked with repeatedly saving the world.”

Care to guess Kheel's race? He's white. And again, yes, race is a very big part of this entire issue, even if Ms. Combs, Ms. McGowan, Mr. Kheel, or anyone else attached to the original Charmed claim otherwise.

We live in a mostly stilted society that consistently fails to practice base levels of common decency. Year after year, we hear of multiple entertainers of color receiving hateful messages and attacks from audiences far and wide, in person and online, who are seemingly threatened by the simple ideas of diversity and change.

In early April 2024, 800 Black actors of stage and screen banded together via an open letter to help defend British actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers from online racial abuse. The reason for the attacks? She's one of the leads in the current London West End production of Romeo & Juliet, opposite Tom Holland of Spider-Man fame. Holland plays Romeo. Amewudah-Rivers portrays Juliet.

When actor John Boyega, a Black British actor, signed on for the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015's The Force Awakens, 2017's The Last Jedi, and 2019's The Rise of Skywalker), the amount of backlash he received due to the color of his skin was abysmal. To add insult to injury, Boyega claims that Disney's solution to quell the ignorant outcry was to sideline his character as much as possible, along with that of Vietnemese-American actress, Kelly Marie Tran, as the trilogy continued.

Almost since its 2009 inception, RuPaul's Drag Race and its production company, World of Wonder, have been criticized for failing to protect Black and Brown drag queens from constant online slander and targeted attacks from white viewers. Even worse, some queens have lost out on professional opportunities after their appearance on the show due to some fans going out of their way to contact establishments where they're booked, and having their gigs canceled.

Holly and Rose's misdirected ire was all the agitated fan base needed to take down Melonie, Madeleine , Jeffery, and Lucy Barrett (who replaced Mantock in Season 4 of the reboot). It doesn't take much for ignorance to charge in and quickly get out of hand, and that's exactly what occurred. Combs and McGowan know how fickle Hollywood is - they've been a part of it for decades now. They also know how the world is - they live in it, just as we all do.

If they truly cared for the legacy of Charmed as much as they say, then they could have gone about expressing their frustrations in an entirely different way. Instead, they went for the low-hanging fruit over and over, then walked away from the carnage they instigated.

Oh, and before I forget - where was all of this energy in December 2017 when former Charmed showrunner Brad Kern, then the showrunner of NCIS: New Orleans, was being investigated on claims of sexual harassment and discrimination against women?

Combs did use that time to call Kern out for, of all things, reneging on a verbal agreement regarding physical possession of the original Book of Shadows from Charmed. Yet just a month later, Combs would bring up his name again in her argument against the reboot to elevate herself and the power trip she’s clearly been on since around 2002. But once again, I digress.

With Kheel’s spiteful farewell, there was no further doubt in my mind that this was never about going after CBS or Warner Bros. Kheel, Combs, McGowan, and all of those other people were pressed and distressed over the fact that the cast and crew of the Charmed reboot wanted to make their own story. Sure, there were nods and mentions of the 1998 take, but that happens with all reboots and revivals. It’s meant as a wink to a legacy property’s fanbase to assure them that they are aware of what they’re building on, and that the foundation is in good hands.

By the end of the original run of Charmed, the show was very different from what it initially set out to be. In the final minutes ot its finale, "Forever Charmed," we see all three sisters – Piper, Phoebe, and Paige – moving on with their lives separately. Instead, what viewers get is a montage of promotional photos and screen captures of scenes from earlier episodes. For a show based on sisterhood and the importance of family, it failed spectacularly to stick the landing.

Now, compare that with the final scene of the Charmed reboot. The new Charmed Ones are seen side-by-side as they enter Halliwell Manor. The story it told may have lacked consistency throughout the show's short run, and perhaps it never captured as strong of an audience as the original source. But still, they managed to get their ending and the entire vibe right. The Charmed reboot did what the original series stopped trying to do after Season 4 – they focused on family first and put everything else after. For that alone, it gets my respect. Bravo, Charmed reboot. You deserved so much better.

As the blessing of life continues for me, I find myself repeatedly losing faith with the nostalgic television shows that helped me escape my harsh upbringing. For example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is forever tainted by the gross allegations against show creator Joss Whedon, and the fact that Buffy Summers herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, refuses to be associated with his name.

Actress Trina McGee of Boy Meets World broke my heart when she spoke of the racial microaggressions she took on from multiple cast mates on the show. All alleged parties apologized to McGee either at the time of the offense or years later, but it doesn't negate her experience, especially as many Black fans feel McGee's characer is an important factor of the BMW narrative and normalizing interracial relationships on television.

The cast of the mega-hit sitcom Friends still won’t publicly acknowledge that their writers used the premise of Living Single to create the show. Simple as, really. No other reason should be needed to explain this one.

One cannot separate the artist from the art when that art gives artists the power to inflict emotional pain, hurt, and strife to everyone around them. Alyssa Milano’s concern over past Charmed drama "tarnishing" the show's legacy is almost funny in retrospect – not just because she was allegedly the cause of most of it, but considering all I've shared here. Compared to what her grown cast mates did to a group of new, young stars, her worries and alleged actions are truly small potatoes.

I’ll end this very long post with a quote from Prue Halliwell, the late older sister of Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. Ironically, Shannen Doherty, who played Prue, was my final saving grace for Charmed... until she chose to defend transphobic comedian Dave Chappelle on her podcast just this week, naming him as her favorite comedian (and during LGBTQ+ Pride Month, no less).

With that insanity now added to all of the others when it comes to Charmed, I guess the following line becomes even more paramount in how some use the beauty and reverence of nostalgia to defend the ugliest of ignorance and crudeness.

“They say if you leave a subject under the light for too long, it burns.”