In what comes as no surprise, following a first look at the series, it’s learned The CW is retooling its Powerpuff Girls series which means the current pilot has been scrapped and the show will get a complete rewrite.
Deadline reports Powerpuff, which stars Agents of SHIELD‘s Chloe Bennet, and Dove Cameron, and Yana Perrault, as Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, respectively, is not going to series in its present form.
The series, based on the popular original Cartoon Network animated series, will be reworked and repiloted off-cycle, with the four leads, including Donald Faison as Professor Drake Utonium, as well as other cast and the writers-producers, all remaining on board the project.
“We’ve got a trio of terrific actresses at the center of that,” said Warner Bros TV Group President Channing Dungey last week. “I’m not going to say that it hasn’t been a challenge. Bringing a children’s cartoon into live-action adulthood has been a really fine like to walk, but I think we’ve done a pretty great job walking it.”
No specific reason was given as to why the current pilot has been canceled, but fan reaction hasn’t been all that good. In addition, the official description of the series isn’t all that promising as it spits in the face of the popular cartoon (bold my own):
Powerpuff follows the trio that used to be America’s pint-sized superheroes. Now they’re disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime-fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?
Update: The script leaked online offering just how bad things are.
Update #2: The CW president Mark Pedowitz offering the following (via TV Line):
Asked by TVLine how exactly the first crack at a pilot came up short, Pedowitz said, “Tonally, it might have felt a little too campy. It didn’t feel as rooted in reality as it might have. But again, you learn things when you test things out. And in this case, we felt like, ‘Let’s take a step back and go back to the drawing board.’”
As the network boss noted, “This is a powerful property, it has engaged a lot of interest, and we want to get it right before we put it out.”
In related news, The CW has picked up Ava DuVernay’s DC series, Naomi, and the shows 4400 and All-American Homecoming, and passed on the Black Lightning Painkiller spinoff, and Our Ladies of Brooklyn, with Tom Swift still in contention for a possible series.
(via Deadline)
The CW’s Powerpuff:
