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Television

10th Feb 2021

A live-action Powerpuff Girls TV show pilot has been ordered

Wil Jones

2000s nostalgia coming at you strong

A live-action Powerpuff Girl has been ordered by The CW.

As reported by Variety, the announcement is part of three pilots ordered for the 2021-2022 season, alongside a straight-to-series reboot of 2000s sci-fi show The 4400.

The live-action take on the classic Cartoon Network show had been announced as in development in August, but now it is moving ahead to the pilot stage.

The new Powerpuff Girls will be written and executive produced by Diablo Cody and Heather Regnier. Diablo Cody is the Oscar-winning writer of JunoJennifer’s Body and Young Adult.

Powerpuff Girls was created by Craig McCracken, and debuted on Cartoon Network all the way back in 1998. The show focused on the three pre-teen superheroes, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, who were created by Professor Utonium by mixing “sugar, spice, and everything nice,” but ended up with superpowers after the mysterious “Chemical X” fell into the mixture as well.

The show ran for 136 episodes, across six seasons, coming to the end of its run in 2005. The Powerpuff Girls Movie hit cinemas in 2002, serving as a prequel to the show detailing the origins of both the girls themselves and archvillain Mojo Jojo.

The live-action series – if it goes beyond the pilot stage – won’t be the first time the show has been resurrected. Powerpuff Girls Z, an anime adaptation made in Japan, ran for 52 episodes between 2006 and 2007, and a tenth-anniversary special was also aired on Cartoon Network in 2008.

In 2016 however came the show’s big reboot, with a full new series of animated adventures. The reboot lasted for three seasons, ending in 2019.

Alongside the live-action Powerpuff Girls, The CW have also ordered a pilot for Naomi from Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship. The show will be based on the DC Comics title of the same name, about teenage superhero from an alternate Earth.