The CW 'Powerpuff' Pilot Leaked, Got Plugged
The search for fully-produced visuals to know what you were laughing at was finally over! Key word —finally—.
Over 26 years later and the Powerpuff Girls seem to still be having big days, and Thursday was definitely that. First, their part in the Jellystone! “Crisis on Infinite Mirths” crossover made Mojo Jojo (voiced once again by Roger L. Jackson) a main character and half of maybe the greatest crossover crackship in all of cartoons while also getting fully voiced performances from Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong and E. G. Daily as the girls, Tom Kenny as the Mayor, and even Rob Paulsen as Major Glory. But later in the day, the Lost Media Busters social media accounts saw fit to leak footage of the never-before-seen live action Powerpuff pilot made for The CW, presented in very trailer-esque fashion starring Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, and Yana Perrault as the girls, nearly two years after its redevelopment was finally halted.
It starred Agents of SHIELD alum Bennet as Blossom, Liv and Maddie and Disney Descendants star Cameron, soon to be of Schmigadoon as Bubbles, Perrault as Buttercup and Scrubs and The Exes star Donald Faison as Professor Drake Utonium, with Kenny again narrating. We see Utonium’s creation and coining of the girls as the Powerpuff Girls, as he raises them in their rise to fame from a young age, calling the original series highly inaccurate by the time they’re young adults. Blossom was “constantly stressed,” Bubbles was “constantly drinking” so much that she vomits in a trash can, while Buttercup was “constantly rebellious” calling out the iconic outfits for their gender normativity. Lots of comments like these, and the “whitewashing” the original series allegedly did truly highlight the Diablo Cody writing of it all.
All Pilots In Development At The CW Before The Nexstar Purchase Have Been Dropped
The CW unveiled its fall schedule on Thursday. All American is the only holdover that made it, staying on Mondays and paired with semi-rescue 61st Street. Tuesdays are an imported comedy block. it put Sullivan’s Crossing and The Spencer Sisters together on Wednesdays, Thursdays have been given to
Things turn incredibly bad when the girls accidentally kill the adult, human version of Mojo Jojo, (yes, really) which results in Blossom running away, Buttercup becoming a firefighter, Bubbles moving to Hollywood and Mojo’s vengeful son Joseph “Jojo” Mondel Jr., played by Nicholas Podany, becoming the mayor of Townsville. Seven years pass before the girls are able to come together to fight Jojo Jr., who’s brainwashed Townsville and framed the Professor. But once again the day is saved thanks to the Powerpuff Girls and their reputations are clean as Townsville re-embraces them, with Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” playing.
Sources at the CW confirmed the authenticity of the footage, but a final trailer could not have been assembled before the show was canceled. As much as Upfronts sounded like a valid possibility, and is how the one place currently hosting it labels it, the leaked footage would not have passed network standards, Variety’s source says. The network’s occasional use of outside vendors to assemble trailers leads some to believe that it’s a rejected trailer from a third party. Another possibility is it’s created by the studio, Warner Bros. TV, intended for Los Angeles screenings or San Diego Comic Con. Powerpuff gained traction in spring 2021 when it cast its trio of stars and was ordered to pilot. Cody and Heather Regnier were writers and executive producers, along with Greg Berlanti, whose productions were dominant on the network at the time taking up much of the schedule thanks in part to the Arrowverse, Sarah Schechter and David Madden. However, the pilot was later overhauled and re-shot in May 2021, and Bennet dropped out in August due to scheduling conflicts, probably from the production being stalled so long in pilot stage. By the time The CW preemptively canceled 10 series in May 2022 in anticipation of the Nexstar purchase, it was already being redeveloped, but a year later, everything that was being developed by Paramount and Warner for the network was turned around as their contributions were being rejected in favor of Nexstar’s new direction. Faison was poised to stay with The CW by becoming the Arrowverse’s Booster Gold, guest starring in the seventh season finale of Legends of Tomorrow, but it became the series finale thanks to the cancellation.
“The reason you do pilots is because sometimes things miss, and this was just a miss. We believe in the cast completely. We believe in Diablo [Cody] and Heather [Regnier], the writers. We believe in the auspices of Greg Berlanti and Warner [Bros. TV] studios,” said The CW’s then-chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz. “In this case the pilot didn’t work. But because we see there’s enough elements in there, we wanted to give it another shot. So that’s why we didn’t want to go forward with what we had. Tonally, it might’ve felt a little too campy. It didn’t feel as rooted in reality as it might’ve felt. But again, you learn things when you test things out. And so in this case, we felt, let’s take a step back and go back to the drawing board.”
In fact, Berlanti did go back to the drawing board, from the very same studio. He’s now executive producing a live action Scooby-Doo! series for Netflix. Both franchises began at Hanna-Barbera in obviously very different periods. A third animated series, with returning creator Craig McCracken’s involvement remains in development.
'Power Rangers' Reboot Series Not Going Forward At Netflix
Sometimes when it’s too quiet, it’s a developmental regression to non-verbal, but Angel Grove High never dies. The Power Rangers reboot series that has been in development for two years at Netflix, ending original continuity after 30 years along the way, is no more. Not only is the series no longer going forward at the streamer, but it is headed for cre…
Sources: Xandad LLC, Variety