Alyssa Milano isn't thrilled about the Charmed reboot. Photo / AP
Alyssa Milano isn't thrilled about the Charmed reboot. Photo / AP
Alyssa Milano is the latest Charmed star to have a crack at The CW network over their upcoming reboot of the show.
The original series ran for eight seasons between 1998 to 2006, and in January this year The CW network announced it was bringing the show back with different actresses. The first episode is set to air in October.
The announcement upset fans of the original show and led to an online backlash, and Milano has now revealed she isn't happy about it either.
"I wish that they would have come to us and we would have been involved since the beginning," Milano told Entertainment Tonight.
"But having said that, I do hope that it reaches the newer generation and impacts that generation the way ours was able to do for its generation."
Milano, who played Phoebe Halliwell on the show, made it clear she won't be making a cameo in the new series.
"I think that ship has sailed for me," she told ET.
The original Charmed cast: Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs, and Rose McGowan. Photo / Supplied
Milano's original co-stars, Shannen Doherty and Holly Marie Combs, have also criticised the reboot and took exception to The CW network's description of the new show as "a fierce, funny, feminist reboot" of the original.
"Their wording is terrible and a bit offensive," Doherty tweeted earlier this year. "But, everyone makes mistakes."
In January, Combs tweeted: "Here's the thing. Until you ask us to rewrite it like Brad Kern did weekly don't even think of capitalising on our hard work. Charmed belongs to the 4 of us, our vast amount of writers, crews and predominantly the fans. FYI you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp. So bye."
Combs again commented on the reboot a few months later: "Let me say first that I appreciate the jobs and opportunities the Charmed reboot has created. But I will never understand what is fierce, funny, or feminist in creating a show that basically says the original actresses are too old to do a job they did 12 years ago."
The Charmed reboot will star Madeleine Mantock, Melonie Diaz and Sarah Jeffery, who are all aware of the anger the upcoming show has generated.
"We're new characters living in a world," Mantock said to Us Weekly in defence of the reboot.
"It's a new set of witches who've discovered they have powers. I think it's maybe a misconception to say it's a rip-off. I saw somebody yesterday describe it as a tribute to [the original] and I thought that was quite nice."
The president of The CW network is desperately hoping viewers will give the new show a chance.
"We wanted a different Charmed," Mark Pedowitz said at the Television Critics Association presentation last week.
"[The original Charmed was] a great show for that time and place. [I hope] people will come and watch the reboot and give it a chance."
