When will 'Charmed' Season 3 return? Here's what we would like to see happen with the Vera sisters
The coronavirus pandemic led to many TV shows being cut shot as production was forced to shut down amid rising infections. It took a few months, but networks and studios have since formulated a plan to restart production on various television shows with updated safety protocols. This means that the wait for the return of many shows is longer, with some premiering in late 2020, and others in late 2021.
Like its counterparts on The CW, the rebooted 'Charmed' was forced to end its second season about three episodes short which left the story incomplete. However, The CW reboot had been flailing about a bit in its second season. Unlike the first season where the witchy show seemed like it knew what it wanted to be, the show took a different and disappointing turn in the second season under new showrunners.
However, 'Charmed' was renewed for a third season anyway, and hopefully, the showrunners and writers will listen to fans' feedback and bring back what we loved about the show before — that it was daring, unique and wasn't afraid to tackle taboo topics.
Where we left off
As we mentioned before, 'Charmed' was a bit of a mess in its second season, which saw the Vera sisters, Mel (Melonie Diaz), Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) and Macy (Madeleine Mantock), completely uprooted from their home in the fictional Hilltowne to Seattle, where they took refuge in the Elders lair hidden in the co-working space that was aptly titled Safe Space.
Their Whitelighter, Harry Greenwood (Rupert Evans) ended up being the only Whitelighter — and therefore, the only guide to the girls — after all Whitelighters were mysteriously wiped out when the season began.
We also met Harry's Darklighter aka Dark Harry aka Dirty Harry aka Jimmy, who was under the control of mystery villains who were only revealed much later in the season. We learned those villains were Vivienne Laurent (Melinda McGraw) and her nephew, Julian Shea (Eric Balfour), with the latter only reluctantly becoming an antagonist to the girls in the very final moments of Season 2 to help save his sister.
Crucially, what most fans of the show may have been waiting for was Harry and Macy to finally admit their feelings to each other and actually be together, ever since we learned in the Season 1 finale that Harry maybe, sort of had romantic feelings towards the oldest Vera sister. That did happen — for about a minute before Harry realized his feelings for Macy were making him vulnerable at his job and he asks Maggie to use her newfound power of manipulating emotions on him and presumably, change how he feels about Macy.
What we would like to see
'Charmed' had its moments in the third season and to be honest, we were excited when it started out. There was some excellent mythology in the works and while we mourned the loss of old supporting characters, we warmed up to the new ones.
But, as we mentioned before, the show was a mess and seemed completely wayward until the very end. The aforementioned new supporting characters? Only Jordan Chase (Jordan Danica) and Abigael Jameson-Caine (Poppy Drayton) lasted till the end of the season. Even then, both Jordan and Abigael — who started out as really interesting characters — ended up becoming sort of caricatures of what they initially were.
'Charmed' has always been about the Power of Three and the three sisters at the center of the show. That is why the original show worked and that is why the reboot's first season worked. The new showrunners seemed to forget that, however, and there was much more focus on Harry this time around than on the girls. Harry was given compelling, edgy plotlines, and while Rupert Evans is an excellent actor, that is not what we are here to see. The Vera sisters, meanwhile, were completely watered down and could barely hold our interest this time around.
Hopefully, 'Charmed' fixes these issues when it returns for Season 3. We need stronger, and certainly, more permanent supporting characters and we need the writers to look beyond Harry — and while they are doing that, please do away with Jimmy. He was fun for a while, but by the end it just felt like two Harrys. The most important thing is that the Vera sisters need to be brought back into the spotlight, with their full powers, with their confidence, and with everything that made them compelling characters in the first season.
When is it returning
Earlier this year, The CW president Mark Pedowitz announced that the network's regularly fall-scheduled shows will be returning much later due to Covid-19 related production concerns. This would mean that 'Charmed' is set to return in early 2021, most likely January, if production on the third season begins by mid-October.