The WB's Charmed was a series that had it all — magic, romance, girl power — so it may come as a surprise that its planned spinoff, Mermaid, didn't make it onto the screen. The series was pitched and filmed in 2005 and was slated to have high hopes for being picked up by the network, but the series met its end before it even had a chance. Here's everything we know about Mermaid and why the project was canceled.
The pitch for Mermaid surfaced after Charmed season 5 episode 1, "A Witch's Tail, Part 1." After a mermaid named Mylie risks losing her immortality in a sour deal with a sea hag, the Charmed Ones have to help her get a proclamation of love from the man she loves, a mortal man named Craig. Their attempts prove fruitless, and the Halliwell sisters (the original Charmed trio) realize they'll have to slay the hag. The three sisters cast a spell to track down the sea hag, but something goes terribly wrong as Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) suddenly transforms into a mermaid herself. When Mylie is almost killed in the resulting fight, Craig finally confesses his love for her, saving her life. The episode sparked a rise in viewership — though some argue this was simply a result of Alyssa Milano in a revealing mermaid costume.
After the episode, executive producer Brad Kern pitched a spin-off series that would become Mermaid. When a mermaid named Nikki (Nathalie Kelley) washes ashore in Miami, she is rescued by a lawyer named Matt Johnson (Geoff Stults). Upon discovering her true nature, Matt allows Nikki to live with him and his roommate while she does her best to blend in with humanity, taking on a job as a waitress. While helping Matt protect the innocents, Nikki has to dodge Eric Luger, a villainous man who also evolved from the sea. Though it was a spin-off of Charmed, the Halliwell sisters were not a part of the series. Mermaid came with its own mermaid lore, where mermaids evolved in a sunken city under the sea, developing supernatural abilities like superhuman strength, communication with sea creatures, and the ability to read emotions.
The series was written and filmed in Miami in 2005, and the pilot was reported to have a good chance at being picked up by The WB. Despite a promising start, however, the show never came to be. Due to dwindling profits and messy legal proceedings, The WB (which was owned by Warner Bros) and United Paramount Network (UPN) decided to merge into one channel in hopes of competing with networks like Fox. The new channel would become The CW. The CW ended up passing on the pilot for Mermaid, putting an end to the show's hopes of airing. Kern attributed the rejection to a sudden cut in the budget which prevented the pilot from reaching its true potential.
Mermaid wasn't the only potential spin-off Charmed had. One surrounded Billie Jenkins (Kaley Cuoco), a reckless witch who was introduced in season 8 as it was revealed that Paige was her whitelighter. Appearing in the final season didn't give Billie's character much time to develop, which is why Kern was interested in exploring her further in her own spin-off. The network expressed little interest in the project — most likely because the audience response to Billie's character was divisive at best. There was also talk of spin-offs surrounding Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and another featuring the Halliwell sons, Wyatt and Chris, as adults. Despite the rallying of fans, CW passed on the Charmed spin-off as they already had a show about brothers hunting monsters — Supernatural.