Almost every iconic series and movie has been getting a reboot in the last decade. While fans are excited to see their favorite characters make a comeback, some only see it as a cash grab targeted at viewers’ nostalgia. The Harry Potter and Twilight TV shows are two of the most highly anticipated reboots. Considering the disappointing performance of reboots like Gossip Girl and Charmed, it’s justified that fans are wary. However, with Lionsgate at the helm, fans hope the Twilight Saga going to the silver screen will fare better than the movies.
While 2018’s Charmed tried its best to stay true to the original show’s premise by following three sisters in the epic fight of good versus evil, it didn’t manage to keep fans interested. Although the series started getting its footing towards the last season with better dialogue and a more cohesive story about a new sister, it was too late, and the series was canceled before it could explore those stories further. The cancelation, however, could help upcoming reboots like Twilight not to repeat the same mistakes. For the Twilight TV series to succeed, it needs to learn from what went wrong in reboots like 2018’s Charmed.
Why Charmed (2018) Failed as a Reboot to 1999’s Charmed
2018’s Charmed follows two sisters, Maggie and Mel Vera, who later discover they have a half-sister, Macy, after their mother’s death. Aside from the new family member, they also realize they have magical powers and are witches known as the Charmed Ones. These witches are what’s keeping the balance between the forces of good and evil, although it’s taking them a while to get things in order. While the reboot tries to borrow from the source material, it focuses on building its never-ending lore instead of creating well-rounded characters first. While the lore helps cement the series in a fantasy world, it’s nothing without solid and relatable characters for viewers to follow.
The dialogue in the first two seasons of the Charmed reboot also wasn’t great. Dialogue keeps viewers glued to their screens, discussing plot points on Twitter, and eagerly waiting for the next episode. It didn’t help that Macy, a scientist before discovering she was telekinetic, always had a scientific explanation for the magical problems they faced. While science and magic could be connected, the dialogue doesn’t help explain why she preferred science over her powers. One of the reasons why the original Charmed has several rewatchable episodes is because of the endearing storylines and how the characters interact with each other. Being powerful witches with a Whitelighter guide by their sides should have been enough to find magical solutions for the danger they kept facing. However, in the reboot, the show’s writers don’t allow the Whitelighter to reasonably explain the sister’s powers. In the original, Leo’s dialogue helped push the story forward and explain what was happening to the girls and who they were fighting.
Viewers hardly got to see the sisters’ powers, and when they did, the CGI wasn’t anything to write home about. Considering the original Charmed was released in the early 2000s and had better CGI, it’s surprising that the reboot avoided showcasing their powers. These young women fighting bad guys with their witch powers was one of the things fans came to love about the original show. Aside from the dialogue and CGI, the show’s plot was all over the place. Instead of focusing on the three sisters, more screen time is on side characters, taking time away from building a genuine sister relationship among the Vera sisters. In the original show, the Halliwell sisters are skeptical when Paige shows up, and viewers can see how they slowly warm up to her, but in the reboot, it only takes one episode for Macy to be trusted and get close to her half-sisters. The writers could have done much more character-building for the reunion to feel real. The series was finally trying to fix these mistakes, so it was disappointing when this series was canceled in 2022.
Twilight’s Reboot Needs to Focus on Bella and Edward’s World
The Twilight TV series is still in the early stages of development, so it still has time to develop a solid plot and direction for its first season to avoid getting on the list of the worst TV reboots like Gossip Girl. The Twilight franchise was a success because of the captivating acting of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Still, the story from the Twilight books is what kept bringing fans to theaters over and over again. A young girl falling in love with a vampire 100 years older was the forbidden love story that captured the hearts and minds of thousands worldwide.
For the Twilight reboot to succeed, it should learn from the failures of 2018’s Charmed. While 2018’s Charmed kept the original show’s premise of three sister witches fighting for good, it didn’t take time to build the character
s and convince fans why they should care what happens to them. The Twilight reboot can avoid making the same mistake by focusing more on Edward and Bella’s characters. This way, viewers will understand their reasoning, how and why they fell in love, and what’s at stake in their relationship — which is something the franchise fans complained was lacking from the Twilightromantic fantasy movies.
Some of Bella’s actions seemed immature and unreasonable for viewers who hadn’t read the Twilight books. However, in the books, she had justifiable reasons for wanting to become a vampire because of her intense love for Edward. Edward also had reasons for wanting Bella to keep her soul, like his personal beliefs and the need to keep Bella good because he believed he was evil, even though he didn’t choose to become a blood-sucking vampire. A reboot focusing on the main characters with good dialogue will draw in viewers. Fantasy shows that reinvented the genre, like The Vampire Diaries, prove that there is demand for these epic stories.
Twilight Can Learn from Charmed’s 2018 Reboot
The 2018 reboot of Charmed had lukewarm reviews at best, but CW canceled it after its fourth season when it was starting to get good. 1999’s Charmed features some of the best TV witches, so it was disappointing that the reboot couldn’t improve on what the original show created. Fixing issues like bad CGI and lackluster dialogue could be done in future seasons, but they didn’t get to rectify their mistakes. For upcoming reboots like Twilight, they might only have one chance to draw in fans and skeptical viewers with how fast CW canceled reboots like Gossip Girl.
While the Charmed reboot has four seasons, the Twilight series will only have the first season to prove to fans that it’s worth watching. Twilight’s first season should focus more on creating three-dimensional characters that viewers can relate to without straying too far away from the source material. This way, they will not only please Twilight fans but also draw in new viewers who enjoy vampire and human love stories in fantasy shows. If the CGI is good and the dialogue is better than what’s in the books, the Twilight TV series could become a success.
