Posted in: CW, TV | Tagged: powerpuff, powerpuff girls

Powerpuff: "Powerpuff Girls" Trailer Surfaces (and It's Pretty Great)

The trailer for The CW's Powerpuff, a modern live-action sequel series take on the "The Powerpuff Girls," has surfaced - and it's fantastic.

UPDATE: The trailer has been pulled by Warner Bros. Entertainment on copyright grounds.

If you're a long-time reader of Bleeding Cool's television/streaming coverage, then you know that we've been obsessed with the rise and fall of Diablo Cody (Juno) and Heather V. Regnier's (Sleepy Hollow) The CW pilot for Powerpuff, their modern sequel series take on the beloved animated series "The Powerpuff Girls." Now, thanks to Lost Media Busters, we're getting a chance to see the Upfronts trailer that hasn't seen the light of day until now.

In case you need a recap, Chloe Bennet (Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Dove Cameron (Liv and Maddie), and Yana Perrault (Jagged Little Pill) were tapped to play Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, the modern, live-action take found the pint-sized Powerpuff superteam now disillusioned twenty-somethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime-fighting – but finding themselves needing to reunite to save the day one more time.

Based on the Cartoon Network and Craig McCracken's The Powerpuff Girls, the project also starred Donald Faison (Scrubs) as Professor "Drake" Utonium, Nicholas Podany (Hart of Dixie) as Joseph "Jojo" Mondel Jr., the son of Mojo Jojo, Robyn Lively (Light As A Feather) as Sara Bellum, and Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) returning as The Narrator. Over the course of its development, the project would see the project reworked, the pilot retooled, and casting shifts – with the series officially confirmed to be no longer in development at The CW in May 2023.

Now, having seen it? I'm righteously pissed that this series didn't move forward. Why? It was a uniquely crazed and campy take on a beloved animated series that does absolutely nothing to hurt the integrity of the animated series. It's satirical, meta-as-fuck, and… dare I say it? Yeah, it dared to actually look like it was having fun. The idea that the PPG accidentally killed Mojo and that's what led to their break-up is fascinatingly dark – and there are some great lines in that trailer (like Buttercup referencing the cartoon whitewashing her the Professor getting called out for not just creating normal little girls).

Perfect? Nope – there are definitely some cringe moments – but how many shows out there have questionable starts only to come on strong? It would be easy to just like it for the sake of being different from the crow – but Powerpuff might be an example of how gatekeeping killed something that was creatively playful. I would've watched this series in a heartbeat – it represents all of the weird greatness that is Television. Sure, it might've crashed and burned – but I bet it would've been one helluva ride.

In the ELLE video interview "Ask Me Anything" from December 2023, Cameron is asked about the specifics of the pilot's plot. At first, it appeared that we might be getting some new insights into what made it into the pilot – but then, that infamous off-camera NDA reminder came into play. But even though Cameron couldn't talk about plot details, they were able to share some "bigger picture" thoughts on what could've been. "Let me just say that what we shot, I loved, and that was one of the most fun things, and I think whatever you thought it was gonna be, it wasn't gonna be that," Cameron shared. "It was very campy and very sexy and very fun, and I love Diablo Cody." Beginning at around the 4:55 mark, you can check out Cameron's thoughts on the pilot – well, at least the thoughts that don't get anyone into NDA trouble.

A month prior, we were offered another perspective on why the series may have been doomed from the start – from McCracken himself, who's working on a new round of animated adventures for the trio. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times in honor of the animated series' 25th anniversary, McCracken shared his belief that The CW's series attempt failed because it was taking away what made the series so special in the first place. "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," McCracken explained.

Stemming from Warner Bros. Television, the pilot was executive-produced by Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden. Erika Kennair produced, and Maggie Kiley directed and executive-produced the pilot.

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