Powerpuff Girls Live-Action Series Gets Pilot Order From The CW

The Powerpuff Girls live-action series has gotten a pilot order from The CW. We first heard that The CW was working on this live-action Powerpuff Girls series last summer, which is coming our way from Heather Regnier (Veronica Mars, Sleepy Hollow) and Diablo Cody (Juno). The live-action series will follow the Powerpuff Girls as “disillusioned twentysomethings who regret spending their youth fighting criminals. The question lingers of whether they can swallow their resentment long enough to come back together and save the world when it needs them most.” Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden are executive producing for Berlanti Productions; Warner Bros. Television is producing.

Naturally, a lot of Powerpuff Girls fans have been trepidacious (at best) about seeing the beloved animated series converted into a live-action CW series. Granted, old animated properties like Archie and Sabrina The Teenage Witch have been adapted into a successful line of live-action YA genre-dramas, so the formula is there. However, those same classic comic strips were never iconic for their visual style the way Powerpuff Girls is, so shredding the limitless imagination of animation for the constraints of live-action is a definite risk.

One key person who has weighed in on this new Powerpuff Girls live-action series is animation guru Genndy Tartakovski, who was heavily involved in helping series creator Craig McCracken (along with John McIntrye and Randy Myers) get the original Powerpuff Girls animated series off the ground. That groundbreaking 1998-2002 series led to a 2016-2019 revival from McCracken, whose success has, in turn, paved the way for this live-action show:

“The lines between live-action and animation are so blurred,” Tartakovski told ComicBook.com. “I think anything could work. I mean, Dexter can work, and Samurai can work, and Primal could even work if you have a cool CG. I mean, if you take something of quality, Jurassic Park, animated T-Rex, and you have a big burly caveman with her, it can be super cool. It’s super expensive… So, I think everything can cross over, But does it need to? Does it want to? Is it deserving?”

“The thing is, there’s gotta be a reason for it to be an animation or live action,” Tartakovski continued. “…When you try to do a certain thing and then you’re successful at it, and then somebody else takes it, and now is gonna make it a different thing, is that good? Is it bad? … So, that’s the thing. It’s always, ‘Who’s gonna do it? Is it gonna be sincere? Is there a purpose for it besides just, ‘Oh, people know Powerpuff Girls, so let’s do it.’”

No word on when the Powerpuff Girls live-action series will air on The CW.

Via: Variety