Recently, I spent a couple of hours tucked away in a screening room in Burbank where I watched the fifth episode of Charmed and chatted with showrunners Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin. While I can’t reveal everything that transpired, I am able to give you a peek into your own future.
The episode, titled “Other Women,” airs this Sunday, Nov. 11, and finds The Charmed Ones dealing with their most emotional challenge yet — one that will reverberate far beyond this one episode — and that’s exactly how O’Toole and Rardin like it. Especially now that they know their first season has been extended from the original 13 episode order to a full 22 episodes.
“We’ve been working really hard in the writer’s room, we have so many exciting stories to tell,” Rardin shared after revealing they’d just learned the news themselves about two hours before. “So to get to do that for nine more episodes is very rewarding.”
The news is bolstering for both women, who are big fans of the original Charmed. The pick up is another sign that their decision to reboot the series is a good one.
“We’re thrilled for everyone,” O’Toole said, aware that some fans were unsure about the reboot. “We understand how people were dubious. I mean, it makes sense. But at the same time, we really loved the show and loved our actors and all of that. So we were excited to get it out there and we were really excited that people seem to like it. And get it. And get what we’re doing and have kind of stuck around with us as we kind of figure out the show.”
That additional time also means loads more demons. Fans of the original series may have noticed some parallels with the original show, like that truth spell, and that’s no accident. O’Toole says she and Rardin have certainly been inspired by certain plots from the original series and they’ve “definitely utilized a lot of their mythology,” as both have favorite things from the original that have offered inspiration.
There’s little doubt that Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin seem to be on the same page frequently. They tend to finish each other’s sentences, and that’s likely due to their long-running partnership both as writers and producers. The team’s resume includes Jane The Virgin, Selfie, and The Carrie Diaries, and now Charmed.
You may be noticing a trend in their resume when it comes to female leading characters, but they’re not sure if they’d want to call it “writing strong female characters.”
“I don’t know that we ever planned it that way,” said O’Toole. “I mean, I guess it seems fun because we like to think we are those kinds of women. And I think women are interesting protagonists?”
Rardin continued, “And I think in TV what it affords you is the time to get to see many layers. You can see bad sides, and good sides, and complicated sides, and I think that women are complicated and interesting. I feel like writing strong women just comes naturally because I feel like we… I like to think we’re strong women. But I also… all the women we know are strong in different ways. So I think it just feels like writing about people we know.”
For the two, in the end, it just feels like writing people.
“We’ve written on shows that I think have great male characters too, and that’s certainly fun,” O’Toole went on to say. “But we’ve also been lucky to always work on shows where the female voice was valued and was seen as an equally valid protagonist. That’s just kind of how we got into TV and, you know, I think that it’s become a time when more shows are starting to feel like that. So, it’s just afforded us more opportunities to do that.”
That’s not to say they’re not having a delightful time writing for their new Whitelighter, Harry. The casting of Rupert Evans has opened up a lot of new possibilities, especially since the character wasn’t originally written as British.
Both women described Evans as a thoughtful and wonderfully funny person who brings a lot to Harry and his journey as a Whitelighter. So much so that they found themselves integrating him differently than they’d originally intended.
O’Toole joked, “There was so much exposition for that character to provide to inform the audience. And somehow having a British thespian perform it as if he’s at the Royal Shakespeare Company made all the difference.”
But both also said you’ll see a deeper bond form between Harry and The Charmed Ones because all four actors have gotten along so well — a bond that will likely be strengthened by the events in the upcoming episode. Events that will have lasting ramifications far beyond this one episode.
Ramifications I’ll tell you about after Charmed episode 5, “Other Women” has aired this Sunday, Nov. 11 at 9/8c on The CW.