Charmed Opening Credits (2024)

Theme Song[]

How Soon Is Now?[]

The opening theme song used during all broadcast seasons was Love Spit Love's cover version of How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths. The song had previously been featured in the movie The Craft, which might be why Charmed used it, as the show paid homage to various other witch-related movies, book and people during its first season.

I am the son and the heir

I am human and I need to be loved

Just like everybody else does

See I've already waited too long

And all my hope is gone

Instrumental Themes[]

During the fourth and fifth season, a five-second opening with instrumental music is used for the two-part premiere episodes. How Soon Is Now? was also replaced by hard-rock instrumental music on the season eight DVDs because the music license to use it had expired.^[1][2] Showrunner Brad Kern tried to get the license back before region 1 DVDs were released but failed. The hard-rock instrumental music was also used in the opening of all eight seasons on Netflix and Prime Video, however How Soon Is Now? is once again used for all the remastered episodes.

Billing Order[]

For the first three seasons, Shannen Doherty would be credited first, followed by Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano. Although for the first five episodes of the series, Milano was credited after T.W. King and Dorian Gregory. Supporting characters were credited last and in order of importance. For example, in seasons 3, 4 and 5 Brian Krause would always be the first supporting cast member in the credits, followed by Julian McMahon and lastly Dorian Gregory.

After Shannen Doherty left the series, the billing order was changed. Alyssa Milano received the first billing spot, followed by Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs credited last with an "and-as" credit. Combs negated this top billing spot after Doherty left the show, feeling that her best friend (at that time) had not been treated well. Just like previous seasons, supporting cast members were credited last and in order of importance.

In season 8, Brian Krause was credited last, giving up his spot as first supporting cast member to Kaley Cuoco. This was due to Krause temporarily leaving the show after the season's tenth episode, "Vaya Con Leos".

Gallery[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Season 3[]

Season 4[]

Season 5[]

Season 6[]

Season 7[]

Season 8[]

Trivia[]

• The Unaired Pilot featured no opening credits. Instead, lightning would flash over a simple title card reading "CHARMED" with the credits running over shots of San Francisco (similarly to "Charmed Again" and "A Witch's Tail").
• On October 7, 2010, Holly Marie Combs tweeted "I will never forget the thrill I got watching the credits for the first time with Shannen. It was a feeling I had never felt before or since".^[3]
• Medieval and Gothic initials C, H, A, R, M, E, and D, flash onscreen throughout the opening credits.

• The text effect has been changed three times during the first four episodes of the series. "Dead Man Dating" is the first episode to use the Charmed-scroll (a scroll of initials spelling "charmed"), which is used for the remainder of the series.
• Whenever a supporting character does not appear in a particular episode, their name does not appear during the opening credits. However, T.W. King did not appear in "That '70s Episode" and Brian Krause did not appear in "Hyde School Reunion" but both were credited.
• Karis Paige Bryant was featured four times in the opening as she was meant to be a season regular. However, her character was written out of the series due to Jenny being very unpopular amongst fans.
• There are a total of 38 versions of the opening credits, largely due to removing supporting actors when they do not appear in a particular episode.
  • Season 1 features 7 versions with changes in clips, effects, and the order of cast members.
  • Season 2 features 8 versions.
  • Season 3, 4 and 6 all feature 4 versions.
  • Season 5 fittingly features 5 versions.
  • Season 7 and 8 feature 2 versions. However, one may count 4 for season 8 due to the instrumental theme replacing How Soon Is Now? on the DVDs and Netflix.
• "Morality Bites" is the only episode to feature opening credits with only the female leads.
• Prue and Piper's power clips from the season 3 opening have been taken from the same episodes. (Out of Sight and Ms. Hellfire)
• The font used in the opening credits is unknown. However a fanmade version of the font is available for free online and is called "Charmed Font". The font has further been used on the DVD cover of the movie Little Witches (1996), by Lady Gaga for the cover of her single Poker Face (2008), and on promotional material for Marvel's Doctor Strange (2016).
  • "Mason Serif Regular" is the secondary font used in the opening credits during season 4 to 8. The words "Starring", "And", "As "Piper"" and "Created By" are in this particular font. The font is also used for the movie The Craft, on the DVD menu's of the Harry Potter movies and in the opening credits of Wizards of Waverly Place. Funnily enough, the font is also used on promotional material for Little Witches, the movie which also uses the other font used by Charmed.
  • The pilot episode uses the font "Amerigo BT Bold" for the after opening credits and end credits.
  • In the credits for Season 8, the actors only have two clips (before and name clip, combined).
  • Piper's second clip in the credits has been used three times, used in the Season 5 opening, Season 6 and Season 7.

See also[]

• Charmed Opening Credits/Structure
• Charmed Opening Credits/Flashes Gallery

References[]