‘Powerpuff Girls’ Pilot a No-Go, But CW Not Ready to Give Up on Concept, Cast or Creators
It’s decision time at the CW, and for Powerpuff that meant both good news and bad news.
The pilot for Powerpuff, based on the original Cartoon Network animated series has not been picked up for a series order, despite many predicting that the show would be an easy pick-up for The CW. No specific reason was given for why Powerpuff’s pilot wasn’t ordered to series and will be reworked and brought before the network again.
The four leads, Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, Yana Perrault and Donald Faison — as well as other cast and the writers-producers all remain on board the project, from Warner Bros TV and Berlanti Productionss. Tom Kenny and Robin Lively are still on board, as is Nicholas Podany, who played Harry Potter’s son in the Broadway production of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child. He was set to play the son of the Girls’ arch-nemesis Mojo Jojo.
Director Maggie Kiley and writer/producer Diablo Cody are still attached as well; Cody and Heather Regnier will do the rewrite. Last week Warner Bros TV Group President Channing Dungey commented on Powerpuff stars Chloe Bennet (Blossom), Dove Cameron (Bubbles) and Yana Perrault (Buttercup) and the challenges faced in adapting the millennial favorite.
“We’ve got a trio of terrific actresses at the center of that,” she said. “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 line to walk, but I think we’ve done a pretty great job walking it.”
In other pilot news, the network – which will be seen all seven nights next season when it starts airing programming on Saturday for the first time – picked up two other pilots: DC Comics’ Naomi and spinoff All American: Homecoming.
Naomi, based on the DC character of the same name, is to be played in the series by Kaci Walfall. The show is about a teen girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the Multiverse. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core, Naomi sets out to uncover its origins, and what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes.
Selma producer Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship are executive producing and will write the series. Sarah Bremner and Paul Garnes of ARRAY Filmworks also executive produce. Amanda Marsalis directed and co-executive produced the pilot episode, in association with Warner Bros. Television.
All American: Homecoming will air as a backdoor pilot during the July 5th episode of parent show All American. The show follows a young tennis hopeful from Beverly Hills and an elite baseball player from Chicago as they contend with the high stakes of college sports, while also navigating young adulthood at a prestigious Historically Black College.
Geffri Maya, Peyton Alex Smith, Kelly Jenrette, Cory Hardrict, Sylvester Powell, Netta Walker, and Camille Hyde star. Nkechi Okoro Carroll is the writer and executive producer, with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden of Berlanti Productions also executive producing with Robbie Rogers. Michael Schultz directed the pilot for Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.
Those two shows are the latest series pickups for CW for the 2021-2022 season. The broadcaster previously gave a straight-to-series order for a reboot of sci-fi show The 4400 and a new version of Legends of the Hidden Temple.
One more show, the potential Nancy Drew spinoff Tom Swift, is still a contender. The character, played by Tian Richards, was introduced in an episode of the show. A planned spinoff of Black Lightning focusing on the character Painkiller has been passed over, as has Jennie Snyder Urman’s millennial nun dramedy Our Ladies of Brooklyn.
CBS Studios, which produces Our Ladies of Brooklyn, is shopping the project to sister streamer Paramount+ and other outlets. Last week, CBS President David Stapf spoke about the studio’s two CW pilots.
“We like Our Ladies of Brooklyn a lot,” he said. “We also like Tom Swift a lot, which was a kind of a planted, not even a planted, spinoff. It was a character that was planted in Nancy Drew, and we also wrote a first episode. We love both those projects a lot.”
The CW’s fall season kicks off in October.