‘Captain Planet’ Movie Will Be Dark And Irreverent

It’s time to call on Captain Planet once again, but his big-screen adaptation is going to look a bit different than the cartoon fans remember.

The new Captain Planet project will be based off a screenplay from actor Glen Powell, who has lit projects both on television (Scream Queens, Set It Up) and on film (Hidden Figures). He’s got more projects lined up too, like the Top Gun sequel starring Tom Cruise, but there’s a special place in his heart and memory for Captain Planet and the Planeteers, and he’s working on a slightly darker take on the character along with Paramount and Appian Way Productions.

The show was a favorite of Powell’s early on, and others have tried to bring Captain Planet to film. Unfortunately, those have never really materialized, so to get Captain Planet on the big screen a few tweaks and changes are in order.

“I mean, they’ve tried to make it into a superhero movie before, but they kind of did like an earnest take and ours is way more subversive and fun and like dark and irreverent,” Powell told THR. “Sometimes you have to think of these things logically. If you have a blue superhero with a green mullet, you can’t do like an earnest take on that. You have to go at it from a fun [direction].”

For those who don’t remember, Captain Planet and the Planeteers revolved around five teens who were gifted with rings from the ancient spirit of Earth Gaia after she awoke to the news that the Earth was dying. Each ring had a different ability related to the elements, resulting in Planateers wielding the power of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Heart. They protected the planet from Eco-Villains, but When their power wasn’t enough to stem the tide they could combine their powers to call on the hero Captain Planet.

You can see the potential in that premise, especially with what is going on in the realm of environment and climate change debate, but it is going to take some work to get the more outlandish elements into a consumable form. Powell is hard at work on the screenplay already.

“It’s been an interesting process and it’s taken a long time, but now we’re getting that up and going and we’re really stoked about it,” Powell said.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers ran for six seasons from September 1990 to February 1996. The new Captain Planet film does not have a release date.