Anyone who grew up in the 2000s will sooner or later have stumbled upon The Powerpuff Girls on their afternoon TV schedule. The animated series, which first aired on Cartoon Network in 1998, ran for six seasons and had 78 episodes before a reboot, also animated, followed in 2016.
In August 2020, plans for a Live action film adaptation known. In the slipstream of the superhero boom, the first live series of the popular franchise was to be created. Three years later, that’s plain as powerpuff dubbed project dead for good, TVLine has learned from its sources.
Fantasy reboot: The live-action version of the Powerpuff Girls failed twice
As in the original, the story of the Powerpuff series would have centered around the three super-powered girls Blossom, bubbles and buttercup turned. Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron and Yana Perrault were cast in the lead roles. Additionally, Donald Faison joined as Professor Utonium to the cast.
You can watch the trailer for the original here:
Powerpuff Girls – Trailer (English)
In February 2021, the US broadcaster The CW commissioned the production of the pilot episode from the Warner Bros. Television studio. Among others, Greg Berlanti was on board as a producer, who had already done the extremely successful Arrowverse launched on The CW. However, the Powerpuff pilot was not convincing, so The CW announced in May 2021 that it would completely revise the concept of the series.
Shortly thereafter, the original pilot’s script leaked and caused negative reactions. The next setback followed in August 2021, when Bennet left the project. The reason given was overlapping dates, but the problems with production were significantly greater. The CW still stuck with the Powerpuff series for two more years, trying to pitch a new version.
The Powerpuff Girls live-action series is dead, but there’s hope for fans of the franchise
The plug was only officially pulled in May 2023. After The CW was acquired by Nexstar Media Group, the station said goodbye to the Powerpuff series. Warner Bros. Television would now have had the opportunity develop the series further or to accommodate another broadcaster / streamer. That’s not happening, however, according to the TVLine report.
Warner Bros. Television has buried all Powerpuff plans. The franchise lives on anyway: Another animated series about the Powerpuff Girls and their fight against evil is currently being created under the umbrella of Cartoon Network. This time it’s Craig McCracken again, the Creator of the brand, involved. He wasn’t on board with either the live-action version or the 2016 reboot.
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