Fate: The Winx Saga recast several major characters for season 2. Inspired by the popular Winx Club animated series, Fate: The Winx Saga stars Abigail Cowen as Bloom, a teenager who discovers she has inherited the power of ancient fairies. In Fate: The Winx Saga, Bloom found herself plunged into a realm of fairies and monstrous Burned Ones. There are striking parallels between Fate: The Winx Saga and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter franchise, with Bloom compared to Harry himself. Like Harry, she is essentially a "Chosen One" figure who grew up in the normal world and is introduced to magic when she attends school.
In Bloom's case, though, Fate: The Winx Saga deliberately chose to turn this idea on its head by literally killing off the Dumbledore figure. Farah Dowling was murdered at the end of Fate: The Winx Saga season 1, and in season 2 the school was taken over by her killer, a powerful fairy named Rosalind. It's a bold twist, ensuring the story feels fresh and original rather than derivative. However, The Winx Saga recast several characters in season 2. Miranda Richardson replaced Lesley Sharp as Rosalind, and she wasn't the only recast character in what turned out to be the final season of the show.
Why Were Rosalind & Ben Harvey Recast In Fate: The Winx Saga Season 2?
The Winx Saga recast appears to have resulted from scheduling conflicts. Production of Fate: The Winx Saga season 2 was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, not starting until almost two years after season 1. Lesley Sharp had a number of other commitments, including Channel 4's Before We Die, Disney+'s The Full Monty series, and the COVID-19 drama Help, and she seems to have been unavailable. It's likely Alex Macqueen left for a similar reason. There doesn't seem to have been any animosity, thankfully.
Discussing the recasting with The Radio Times, star Abigail Cowen spoke highly of both the actresses who portrayed Dowling. "They're both lovely, lovely actresses and lovely people," she said. "And I absolutely enjoyed my time with Lesley, and now absolutely enjoyed my time with Miranda. Miranda had shoes to fill, and she did just that and did an incredible job, and was just a joy to work with." Sharp had a particularly important role, becoming Bloom's mentor and revealing the truth about the Dragon Flame, the ancient power that returned - and that ultimately flared out of control in Fate: The Winx Saga season 2.
A Different Recast Might Have Helped Save Fate: The Winx Saga
Sadly, The Winx Saga recast was not enough to save the show after the second season. Netflix canceled Fate: The Winx Saga after its two-season run. One of the biggest complaints about the show's first season surrounded the casting of specific characters. Many fans of the original source, the animated series Winx Club, seemed disappointed with the dark and outdated costuming, especially since the cartoon was always bright and colorful. However, the loudest complaints came in the area of representation when it comes to BIPOC.
In the cartoon, the members of the Winx Club were more diverse and had deeper backstories and characterizations. The Netflix show mostly used white actors in roles that initially were BIPOC characters. Whereas the cartoon had characters representing viewers of all sorts, Fate: The Winx Saga did not offer that to fans. One of the characters The Winx Saga recast in season 2 was Flora, with Paulina Chavez taking over the role. With that said, there was one other The Winx Saga recast that didn't happen that could have fixed the problems.
Musa in Winx Club was a musical fairy with a rich East Asian background. However, the Netflix series cast Elisha Applebaum as Musa, an ethnically ambiguous actor. This caused an uproar among the fans since Applebaum did not share Musa's East Asian heritage. Iginio Straffi, the Winx Club creator, even once said he based Musa on Lucy Liu (via Polygon). While the fact The Winx Saga recast Flora with a more diverse actor, doing it to others, especially Musa, might have gone a long way to saving Fate: The Winx Saga from its eventual fate.