'Charmed' Reboot Adds 'Lord of the Rings' Actor in Possible Villain Role

The CW's Charmed reboot may have just revealed the first major villain the new Charmed Ones will face.

According to TVLine Craig Parker has joined the cast of the series as Alastair Caine, the CEO of Morningstar Biotech and benefactor of Hilltowne University laboratory -- the laboratory that just so happens to be where Macy (Madeleine Mantock) works. Alastair is described as a charismatic businessman who will cause trouble for the Charmed Ones personally and professionally.

While there's been no specific indication that Alastair is actually evil, it's not too difficult to infer that there's probably something going on. For starters, the name of his company is Morningstar. Biblically-speaking, Satan is sometimes referred to as the "morning star" so that can't be good, but there are also some parallels between Alastair and Rex Buckland from the first season of the original Charmed.

In the original Rex, played by Neil Roberts, was the CEO of Buckland Auction House and Prue Halliwell's (Shannen Doherty) boss. Much of the season saw Rex attempting to destroy the Charmed Ones and, before he was killed off, he was briefly successful in blackmailing them into giving him their powers. The parallels go further than just the work-related connection, too. Rex even briefly dated the youngest Charmed One, Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) in the original so with Alastair described as causing trouble professionally and personally for the girls in the reboot, all signs seem to point to Alastair's big bad status.

If Alastair is the big bad for the Charmed reboot, it will be interesting to how the show approaches him. Executive producer Jessica O'Toole recently explained that they didn't want to make things "too easy" for the new Charmed Ones in regard to solving things with magic.

"We didn't want to make it too easy for them to solve things with magic, so I think we pulled back a little, which doesn't mean that the power won't evolve," executive producer Jessica O'Toole said. "Based on the original, the powers do evolve so that's something we've had in the back of our minds as something we could get to."

As for the actor playing Alastair, the Charmed reboot is continuing a long tradition of The CW "recycling" actors from other series. Parker is best-known to network fans for having played the villainous Stephane Narcisse on Reign. Parker is also known for his role as Haldir of Lorien in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Charmed premieres on The CW Sunday, October 14 and 9/8c following Supergirl.