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Powerpuff Girls live-action pilot being reworked

The CW's ordered everyone back to the drawing board

The pilot for the live-action The Powerpuff Girls sequel series is getting an overhaul. Instead of picking it up, The CW has elected for everyone involved to have another go, for potential broadcast later down the line.

The CW is announcing its fall 2021 schedule this week, and Powerpuff, one of its more highly-anticipated projects, isn’t part of the slate. Instead, a reshoot has been ordered with all cast-members, and production crew, holding over to the reworked pilot. Executive producers Diablo Cody and Heather Regnier are still on writing duties for the new script, Maggie Kiley is still directing, and Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, Yana Perrault remain as the stars, playing Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, respectively.

Set years after the nineties animated show, Powerpuff finds the trio of superpowered sisters in their twenties, resentful of their childhoods lost to fighting crime. Donald Faison, of Scrubs and Clueless fame, will play their father, Professor Utonium, and Nicholas Padony is voicing Mojo Jojo Jr, their primate arch-nemesis. Tom Kenny returns as narrator from the original series, which was created by Craig McCracken, and aired on Cartoon Network.

“We believe in the cast completely, we believe in Diablo and Heather, the writers – in this case, the pilot didn’t work,” Mark Pedowitz, chairman and CEO of The CW, said of the decision, per Deadline. “You learn things and you test things out. In this case we felt let’s take a step back and go back to the drawing board because this is a powerful property, it has engaged a lot of interest and we want to get it right before we put it out.”

The Powerpuff Girls ran for six seasons between 1998 and 2005, and each episode involved the titular trio having to stop some baddie or other. Recurring antagonists besides Mojo Jojo were Fuzzy Lumpkins, the Amoeba Boys, Sedusa, and the devilish HIM.

Very little has been officially shown of Powerpuff thus far, but Warner Bros did release the image above of the three leads in colour-coded costumes.

Powerpuff is being produced by Warner Bros TV, and Berlanti Productions. Watch this space for more on if, and when, it might reach our screens.