TV Insider had een interview met showrunners Liz Kruger en Craig Shapirovan om te praten over het tweede seizoen van Charmed en wat we kunnen verwachten.

Are things better once you reach the top?

Maybe in some situations but as the second season of the Charmed reboot is going to show us, being in charge is not all it’s cracked up to be. That’s where we’ll find the Charmed Ones — half-sisters Macy (Madeleine Mantock), Mel (Melonie Diaz) and Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) when we see them again for their sophomore season on the CW.

One important thing to know is the show has gone through a bit of a transformation in its second season with new showrunners Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro (Salvation, Extant) and a bigger scale of problems that will require the Power of Three in a big way. And, yes, Harry (Rupert Evans) is also back and, as Kruger and Shapiro told us, we’ll get a bigger sense of who he is and get clued in on his origin story.

For more, let’s dive into our chat with the new showrunners to see just how different (and exciting) the second season of Charmed is set to be.

The Broadway performer is lending his talents to The CW reboot.

Where do we kick off Season 2 given the cliffhangers of the first season?

Liz Kruger: As you know, the Elders are dead and the Charmed Ones are essentially in charge. And though we all dream of being in charge at some point, the reality is that nothing quite prepares you for the weight of the world, and that’s what they’re going to be carrying this season. It turns out the events of season one have destabilized the Magical World, unbeknownst to them when we begin the new season. The Witch World is going to descend into chaos without the Elders protections and we find out that someone – or something – has put a target on the Charmed Ones backs. And that mystery is what’s going to play out in the first half of the season in a mind blowing way.

Craig Shapiro: From there, a lot of what we explore is a great jumping off point since this season is really going to be much more epic in scale. The whole tone of the show is going to be darker, moodier, edgier. And they’re going to explore the Magic World worldwide. It’s not just located in one place and there’s so much more going on than they understood in season one, in the Demon World, in the Witch World, and in the Magic World generally, as we meet all kinds of new magic characters along with demons and witches.

Here’s the season two key art for Charmed:
Kruger: And we’re really going to bolt down the mythology in a very, I would say, tangible way. And we’ll explain everything has happened and everything that will be happening going forward. The Charmed Ones find themselves in a new world for reasons that you will learn in episode 201…about seven minutes in and it sets up a whole new world for season that we think that the fans are going to love, and it’s going to take them ultimately across the globe.

Given the change in focus, will the show look the same or has there been tweaks there, too?

Kruger: In terms of making this an epic journey from episode 1 to 22, we have changed the visual look. It’s more cinematic. We built new sets, we have some new cast members, some familiar faces as well. But we’re going to have some epic dark forces, epic love stories.

Where is Harry (Rupert Evans) while all this is happening?

Kruger: Harry plays a huge role in this season’s story.

Shapiro: Rupert Evans is just an amazing actor and he’s so versatile. We’re really going to give him a lot to bite into this season.

Kruger: We dig into Harry’s origin story in a very meaningful way, which really leads to very shocking revelations.

How are Mel, Macy and Maggie adapting to all of this?
Kruger: I think you look at it as how does the younger generation feel about the world they’ve been handed today? We look at the whole thing as a metaphor for climate change. Basically, the Elders handed them a pile of sh** and now they have to find a way to clean it up. Some days they’re going to face it head-on and some days it’s just going to all feel like too much. And they’re going to struggle with their various roles. It’s very lonely being in charge.

Shapiro: At the beginning of the last season, it seemed like the Elders were really on top of it. They were smart and all powerful. But really, by the end of the season, it was pretty clear that the Elders, and maybe as a metaphor for real world elders, had just made a giant hash of the world. They’ve made a mess of everything, and they’ve kept a lot of secrets. They were not transparent with basically anything. The three Charmed Ones and Harry really get a better understanding of what was going on around them that they were just not aware of the larger magical kingdom.

Is there one particular big bad this season, or a group of big bads?

Kruger: Let’s put it this way, there is an epic bad guy, but until you peel the layers and get to that, there will be some surprising revelations along the way. it’s really the central mystery of the first half of the season, or maybe even the whole season, as to who’s after them and why.

Shapiro: Somebody’s after them at the very beginning of episode 201, and it’s very mysterious and dangerous. And a lot of the first half of the season is turning those cards as they try to investigate and explore what exactly is after them and how can they stop it.

You mentioned some new faces this season. Can you talk about anybody in particular?
Kruger: Jordan Donica, who played Jefferson in Hamilton here in L.A., and he was also in Phantom, and My Fair Lady…he’s such an accomplished actor and this is his first series regular role. And we vamped him up. Funny enough, his character’s name here is also Jordan. He plays somebody in this new ecosystem in Seattle that we meet early on, and it’s going to turn out that he has a mysterious past that’s going to play into the mythology of the season. Everything is there for a reason, let’s put it that way.

Are the powers that each of the sisters have thus far, do they stay the same or are there new powers coming?

Kruger: The powers of the three are going to go through all sorts of permutations.

Shapiro: Part of the journey of the season is how their powers work and how they learn to explore them, and use them, and expand on them.

Will there be time for romance for anyone?
Kruger: Everybody’s got something going on. There’s triangles upon triangles and parallelograms, you name it. And let’s just say that Harry’s repressed feelings for Macy will be somewhat explored but in a way that will surprise everybody.

The show has really established itself on its own but, for the sake of asking, are there any callbacks to the original show?

Kruger: What’s great about the show is that like the original, the heart of the story is still about the power of sisterhood and how powerful women can change the world. And that is where we stay true to the core of what the show but the show also does stand on its own. It holds true to the original, but it’s spreading its wings on its own terms.

Charmed, October 11, 8/7c, CW.