In 2021, The CW ordered and shot a live-action “Powerpuff Girls” pilot starring Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, Yana Perrault and Donald Faison, only for the series to be canceled and never see the light of day — until now.
Footage from the canceled series has been leaked onto YouTube and made into a trailer. Sources at CW confirm to Variety the footage real, but a final trailer was never assembled before “Powerpuff Girls” was axed. At the time of the cancellation, CW may have been putting together a trailer for upfronts, but sources say the leaked footage would not have passed CW standards. The network sometimes used outside vendors to assemble trailers, so the leak could have been a rejected trailer from a third party. It may also have been a Warner Bros. TV trailer created for LA screenings or San Diego Comic Con.
Nevertheless, the leaked footage spread on social media Thursday. It introduces Bennett as Blossom, Cameron as Bubbles, Perrault as Buttercup and Faison as Professor Drake Utonium, who created the trio of heroes in his laboratory. The trailer shows younger versions of the Powerpuff Girls, their rise to fame (which included the original Cartoon Network series) and their lives at young adults. Blossom was “constantly stressed,” Bubbles was “constantly drinking” and throws up in a trash can while Buttercup was “constantly rebellious.”
“I’m not wearing that dress anymore, it’s gender normative and ass ugly,” Perrault says. Things change when the Powerpuff Girls accidentally kill the adult, human version of Mojo Jojo, which results in Blossom running away, Buttercup working as a firefighter, Bubbles moving to Hollywood and Mojo’s vengeful son Joseph “Jojo” Mondel Jr. (Nicholas Podany) becoming the mayor of Townsville. Seven years later, the Powerpuff Girls reunite to fight Jojo Jr., who’s brainwashed Townsville and framed Prof. Utonium.
“Oh God, they’re all possessed. This is exactly like the gathering of the Juggalos,” Bubbles says as the heroes watch citizens riot.
“You’ve been?” Buttercup asks her.
“Oh yeah, I’m down with the clown,” Bubbles replies.
The Powerpuff Girls save Townsville, their father and their reputations as they are embraced by their fans once again. The trailer also teases a romantic spark between Jojo Jr. and Blossom, but Blossom assures her sisters that he isn’t obsessed with her.
“Yes he was, and I bet he still is. But in like an angry, kinky, hate boner kind of way,” Buttercup teases her. To which Bubbles adds, “That’s the best kind of boner.”
The live-action “Powerpuff Girls” picked up steam in spring 2021 when it cast its trio of stars and was ordered to pilot. Oscar winner Diablo Cody and Heather Regnier were writers and executive produced, along with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and David Madden. Warner Bros. TV was also producing. However, the pilot was later overhauled and re-shot in May 2021, and Bennet dropped out in August.
“The reason you do pilots is because sometimes things miss, and this was just a miss. We believe in the cast completely. We believe in Diablo [Cody] and Heather [Regnier], the writers. We believe in the auspices of Greg Berlanti and Warner [Bros. TV] studios,” said CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz at the time. “In this case the pilot didn’t work. But because we see there’s enough elements in there, we wanted to give it another shot. So that’s why we didn’t want to go forward with what we had. Tonally, it might’ve felt a little too campy. It didn’t feel as rooted in reality as it might’ve felt. But again, you learn things when you test things out. And so in this case, we felt, let’s take a step back and go back to the drawing board.”
