Shannen Doherty Explains What Fans Have to Do to Get a ‘Charmed’ Reunion Greenlit
Shannen Doherty offered some tips on how Charmed fans can help speed up the process of getting an official reunion series with the original cast greenlit.
“So the way that it works is that as actors, unless we wrote the show, created it and produced it, we have no rights to it,” Doherty, 53, said on the Monday, May 20, episode of her “Let’s Be Clear” podcast. “I believe CBS owns the show. The only person or company that can make a reunion happen is CBS.”
While Doherty and her costars don’t have a say in greenlighting a new Charmed project, she encouraged the series fans to not give up and take action into their own hands.
“So if you guys really want one you have to bombard their Instagram, [CBS’] Facebook, write mail. I don’t even know how to do any of that but that’s the only way,” she said. “You know, do some petitions and send them in. That’s pretty much the only way that it would happen.”
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However, Doherty joked that a reunion would have to “happen pretty quickly unless you want to see all of us as grandmas.”
Doherty starred on Charmed for three seasons alongside Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano as the Halliwell sisters. Combs, 50, and Milano, 51, continued on the show until it wrapped after eight seasons alongside Rose McGowan who was brought in for season four as long lost sister Paige, Doherty’s replacement.
While the original Charmed aired from 1998 to 2006, a reboot series for the CW was ordered in 2018 featuring a new cast of characters. Many of the stars and writers of the original show slammed the reboot for not taking the original cast into consideration.
“Until you ask us to rewrite it like [showrunner] Brad Kern did weekly, don’t even think of capitalizing on our hard work,” Combs tweeted in 2018. “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.”
In addition to feuding with the new Charmed, tension brewed amongst the series’ original stars. During a December 2023 episode of Doherty’s podcast, Combs claimed that Milano had gotten Doherty fired from the series. Milano, for her part, has vehemently denied the allegations. The back and forth between the women reignited a feud that seemingly began behind the scenes of Charmed.
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“Holly and I were not mean on the podcast, my podcast ‘Let’s Be Clear.’ In fact, we went in and edited out anything that we thought would cause more drama,” Doherty said during a February appearance at Megacon. “We simply told the truth because the truth actually does matter. But we wanted to try to save you, the fans, from heartbreak as much as humanly possible.”
As for McGowan and Doherty, the two women never worked together on screen — but have bonded over the years. On the Monday episode of her podcast, Doherty teased that she planned on chatting with McGowan soon.
“Rose and I get along really well and we adore each other,” she said while confirming McGowan would “100 percent” appear on the podcast in the future. “I really respect her foundation. I don’t mean a foundation like a charity foundation, I mean like a foundation in herself.”
