Live-action adaptations of beloved animated shows are becoming another hot commodity, following the success of shows like Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender and Cowboy Bebop (despite mixed reviews, both shows pulled in serious viewing figures). The CW was also looking to capitalize on that popularity with a live-action adaptation of Cartoon Network’s beloved The Powerpuff Girls. However, any attempts at transforming sugar, spice, and everything nice into live-action were halted in 2023 when the show was officially canceled. Two years later, a trailer for the CW’s canceled Powerpuff Girls show has leaked online…and it’s probably a good thing it was axed.
The new trailer, which comes to us via a post on Reddit, reveals the drastic changes made to the original show in the CW’s version. The new series planned to age-up Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles into young adults who quit being superheroes after accidentally killing Mojo (the monkey villain Mojo Jojo was split into two people in the new show, each sharing half of the rhyming name). Blossom ran away, Buttercup became a firefighter, and Bubbles became an alcoholic who worked on Hollywood Boulevard. Yup.
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CW’s Powerpuff Girls starred Chloe Bennett as Blossom, Dove Cameron as Bubbles, and Yana Perrault as Buttercup. The new series would have featured one similarity to the beloved original show, with Tom Kenny reprising his role as the narrator. The trailer appears to cut together footage from the entirety of the canceled show to reveal what fans would have watched, as it feels more like a shortened summary than an actual trailer.
Why Was CW’s ‘Powerpuff Girls’ Canceled?
The trailer for The CW’s Powerpuff Girls adaptation being leaked feels incredibly random, especially since the series has been announced as officially dead for two years. Not only was the show canceled, but The CW also vacated the rights to the Powerpuff Girls IP, giving other studios the chance to purchase them and adapt the show into something different (and hopefully much better).
A few months after the series was canceled, Craig McCracken, who created the original animated series, opened up about the development of CW’s live-action show. While we’ve had to wait two years to see why the live-action series wouldn’t work, McCracken knew from the start that CW’s wild concept was a misfire. He said:
“I had one meeting with them and I told them, ‘When you turn them into adults, they’re no longer the Powerpuff Girls because if they’re adults, that’s just three super girls who don’t have to deal with being kids.’ That’s a completely different show.”
That sentiment was supported by former CW President of Entertainment, Mark Pedowitz, who commented on the live-action series’ failure shortly after its cancelation. “Sometimes things miss, and this was just a miss,” was their honest response to the show’s death. “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.’”
Source: Reddit
Powerpuff Girls
- Release Date
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November 18, 1998
- Network
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Cartoon Network
- Showrunner
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Craig McCracken
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
