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At the end of season five of The WB's Sunday-night magical drama, "Charmed," Leo (Brian Krause), a mystical Whitelighter (departed souls who take physical form to watch over good witches), was promoted to an Elder. This forced him to bow out on his marriage to witch Piper (Holly Marie Combs) because of the demands of his new, exalted position.
To help Piper through her grief and sorrow, he cast a spell to lessen her pain, confusing her worried sisters, Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Paige (Rose McGowan).
Before leaving, Leo gave parting words to his replacement, the puckish, enigmatic Chris (Drew Fuller), a Whitelighter from the future. Chris took Leo's warnings with apparent equanimity, but just as Leo began to "orb" off into another dimension, Chris zapped him, leaving Leo's fate in question.
Also hanging was Chris' fate. After being introduced in the two-part season finale, Fuller only was signed for two episodes in season six. But, over the summer, things changed. At The WB's recent press presentation in Hollywood, Fuller's oversized picture joined other WB stars on the meeting-room wall, and he was the sole representative from "Charmed" at the network's summer star party.
"He'll be doing at least 10 out of 13," series executive producer Brad Kern says. "And probably more than that."
The new season puts a heavy load on the shoulders of young Fuller, but Kern thinks he's up for it. "He's a breath of fresh air for all of us, the girls included," Kern says. "We like him a lot. He's enthusiastic; he's great-looking. He's certainly growing as an actor from episode to episode.
"He's [Chris] a very mysterious character that brings lots of surprises and provokes conversation about who he really is and what his ultimate agenda is. He's still from the future. One thing I can promise is, once he is ultimately revealed, upon reflection, everything that we have said about him will track."
In the sixth season premiere, which takes place five weeks after the finale, Kern intends to deal quickly with many issues, including the side effects of Leo's spell on Piper.
"It's been five weeks of him not being around to take that spell away so she can feel her pain in doses -- rather than all at once, which he was trying to save her from," Kern says. "Obviously, he didn't expect to be sent somewhere by Chris.
"It being a magical painkiller, the more pain she feels -- which she will, after five weeks -- the more magical painkiller is injected. So, by the time we meet her, she's as chipper as chipper can be. We've never seen Piper so happy, which makes her sisters highly suspicious that there is something up.
"When it escalates to the point where Piper's powers aren't working, and it affects them being able to stop a two-headed demon in the opening, they tell Chris, "Hey, we've got to find Leo." That's when Chris is forced to say, "Well, Leo's missing.""
Worried fans may heave a collective sigh of relief at this point, because "missing" does not mean "vanquished," which is exactly what many fans feared. "That was the manipulative show-runner's plan," Kern quips.
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"Chris is clearly going to be covering his tracks," he continues, "because he has an agenda. He wanted to get rid of Leo. He wanted to insinuate himself into the sisters' lives as their Whitelighter. He wanted time to make the girls trust him, but the girls are going to force him to help find Leo earlier than he planned.
"Where they find him will be pretty interesting, and the Leo that they find is going to be a lot different Leo than we've seen."
In the past, Leo has been caring, patient and helpful, as well as possessing healing abilities and a large wardrobe of casual, L.L. Bean-ish clothes -- covered up by a tacky gold-velvet Elder's robe in the finale.
"He'll be hardened and tough and pretty surly," Kern says of the new Leo, "especially at Chris. No wimpy-ass Elder, him, and no gold robes, either. You'll never see them again. It helped inspire a whole new direction for Leo's character. No more flannel; no more gold velvet. Brian's really excited to play it."
Also returning is Eric Dane, who was in a few episodes near the end of the season, playing Phoebe's boss and love interest, publisher Jason Dean, who was packed off to Hong Kong on business.
"He'll have a long-distance relationship with Phoebe, and it's going to be complicated by a new power that Phoebe will discover she has in the season premiere," Kern says. "It involves difficulties in being able to separate her feelings from everybody else's.
"There's one little part in the premiere I can give away, where she walks past a horny guy and jumps his bones, and then has no idea what came over here and is hugely embarrassed, until she figures out what's going on.
"Ultimately, it's going to drive her sisters crazy. "Will you get out of my head, and I mean it! You're telling me how I feel before I even know how I feel.""
Kern reveals that the season premiere deals with the Valkyries, goddesses from Norse mythology. Other episodes include one similar to the feature film "Memento," in which a story is told backward from the point of view of a character with short-term memory loss; and a female version of the Arthur legend.
That show also may include the return of season five's leprechauns.
"There may be a leprechaun in line with all the other magical creatures trying to pull the sword out of the stone in the Excalibur episode," Kern says. "But, of course, he'll need a little help to get up there."
Credit - aboutcharmed.com
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