Powerpuff (lost CW live-action pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; 2021)

Promo picture for the pilot

Status: lost

The Powerpuff Girls is an animated action comedy series made by Craig McCracken that ran on Cartoon Network for 6 seasons between 1998 and 2005. The series is about a Professor named Professor Utonium while attempting to create the perfect little girls, he accidentally breaks a jar of Chemical-X that spilled into the ingredients creating 3 girls all with superpowers, where they fight crime in each episode in their home Townsville. A reboot of the show aired from 2016 to 2019 and another with McCracken's involvement is in development^[1]. However, on August 24th, 2020, it was announced that a live-action reboot series (entitled "Powerpuff^[2]") was set to air on the CW.^[3]

Premise

Set in the early 2020s, the show was to re-imagine the beloved Cartoon Network show by the same name, however, unlike the previous animated iteration targeted toward kids, it would now be targeted at young adults with slice-of-life plot lines of the pint-sized superheroes as "disillusioned twentysomethings" who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting.

Availability

The pilot was filmed in April 2021, however, the show was set to restart production after negative test screenings.^[4] Two full screenplays of the pilot (from January 18th and February 9th, 2021) were leaked online a month after filming concluded and were met with massive backlash. On May 18, 2023, the show was officially cancelled after two years of redevelopment and the departure of Chloe Bennet (Blossom)^[5] ^[6]. The pilot has never been officially released, and likely never will due to the backlash.^[7] However, the pilot has been rumoured to be circulating online in private collecting groups.