Production on The CW‘s Charmed has been temporarily shut down after someone on the crew of the supernatural drama tested positive for COVID-19. As of now, it appears that the series is only shut down for today, so that CBS Studios, who produce the series, can conduct contact tracing. This is not the first coronavirus-related shutdown for the series, which will premiere its third season on The CW in 2021. Last month, the start of production was delayed by a few days due to delays in receiving COVID-19 test results. Last week, The CW announced a number of premiere dates for 2021, including slightly delayed starts for Charmed and freshman series Superman & Lois.
The series has also faced some unique challenges lately in the form of harsh criticism from Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan, who appeared in the original Charmed. Combs has been a vocal critic of the new series from the get-go, but McGowan’s appearance in a video trash-talking the CW relaunch surprised fans and upset Sarah Jeffery, who threw shade back at the OG Charmed Ones.
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“I find it sad and quite frankly pathetic to see grown women behaving this way,” Jeffery said of the video, which she shared on Twitter.
Shannen Doherty, who starred in the original before her character was killed off and replaced by McGowan, joked that “everything old is new again” regarding the controversy, a reference to the various on-set conflicts that made tabloid headlines when the original series was in production.
“I have seen a lot of people be very mean and very negative and cruel to the new show and the new cast,” Doherty recently told fans. “I want to remind everybody that these are three girls who just want to act. They got a huge opportunity, and I would implore everybody to be a little bit kinder.”
Combs, herself, eventually thought better of engaging in an online feud with the cast of the new series, and released a brief statement on social media that said “My Charmed friends … I would like everyone to stop [fighting]. Truth be told and it will be told is that our issues were and are at the corporate level.” She suggested that both the new cast and the old had faced unreasonable demands from the studio, although she did not go into details. To the younger generation of actors, she added, “to the ladies of the reboot… stick together… negotiate together and know that the discourse between us, you guys and crews being discarded and replaced is what they bank on. Division.”
Charmed is likely to go back into production soon, assuming no one else tests positive and the person with the positive covid test isn’t one of the series regulars, without whom scenes can’t be filmed. Keep your eye on ComicBook.com for updates.
