After four seasons the reboot of Charmed has been canceled by The CW. The news broke last night, along with the news of several other shows. Following the cancellation of shows like Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman, people were worried that this would happen.
The Hollywood Reporter shares that a huge problem for a lot of these shows getting the axe is that they are just not profitable now that Warner Bros. is no longer bringing in money from them through deals for the streaming rights.
Warners and CBS Studios — now overseen by newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global — ended the Netflix output deal in 2019 to help boost their respective streaming platforms, HBO Max and Paramount+. Foreign sales, too, have dried up as those rights need to stay in-house as both platforms continue their global expansion in a bid to compete with Netflix and company in the streaming wars. That’s a loss of billions of dollars in revenue, making shows like Dynasty, for example, no longer profitable.
It is always about money. As someone who has been critical of the new Charmed, I am saddened by this cancellation, despite everything. Charmed was finally finding its footing and seeming to learn from its previous mistakes. Last fall, Australian actress Lucy Barrett joined the cast as Keela, rejoining the Charmed Ones with remaining sisters Melonie Diaz, who played Mel, and Sarah Jeffery, who played Maggie. Barrett succeeded Madeleine Mantock, who played Macy for the first three seasons.
There has been behind-the-scenes drama and a lot of stories I am sure will not be wrapped up just yet. Still, the saddest part, for me, is that Charmed could have been a great reboot, or frankly an original series about witches. We had a cast of talented women of color, but colorism tainted the series, not to mention that the creators were not fully transparent about the ethnicity of the women cast.
It was a good idea, and I’m sure there were good intentions, but their mistakes dropped these women into a toxic environment where they were attacked by fans of the original series, which was compounded by the tension between members of the original and reboot cast—a really bittersweet ending to a reboot of one of the most successful women-led shows in television history.
(via Deadline, featured image: The CW)
