The CW is about to get hit with an extra dose of the Powerpuff Girls's sugar and spice… and we don’t mean whatever Pop Tate is cooking up in Riverdale’s famed Chock’lit Shoppe.
According to Variety, the network that brought you Riverdale, Supergirl, and more is gearing up for a live-action reboot of the one and only Powerpuff Girls, the animated series that was an instant hit when it debuted on Cartoon Network in 1998. There’s no word yet on who will play Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, the crime-fighting sisters who were created when Professor Utonium combined sugar, spice, and everything nice with “chemical X,” but we do know the project will center on the trio as “disillusioned 20-somethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting,” Variety notes.
The network and the “as-adults” premise aren’t the only connections the remake will have to a certain live-action adaptation of a certain comic book. Greg Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, who are both behind Riverdale, will be behind the scenes on this project; they'll be joined by writers and producers Heather Regnier and Diablo Cody, the latter of whom is most famous for writing the movies Juno and Jennifer’s Body.
But given that this is a reboot in a world full of reboots, plenty of fans are already feeling protective over their crime-fighting faves. “No one and I mean absolutely no one has watched the Powerpuff Girls and thought, ‘Hmmm it would be even better as a live action series,’” one fan tweeted when the news was announced. “I just know they are gonna age up the characters to make it more 'mature' and dark… Leave the babies alone.”
Another fan noted that to them, the show’s appeal is its animation. A third added that the live-action premise “kinda misses the point of hyper-stylized homages to cartoons, comics, and anime,” given the show’s iconic imagery. And several people pointed out that throughout the series, the girls overall found great joy in being superheroes, so their disillusionment feels contradictory to the show’s premise.
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Even so, plenty of people began dream-casting their favorites, including for Miss Bellum and the show’s beloved villains, including Him and Mojo Jojo. As for the central crime-fighters? Well, if it’s a Berlanti production, those actors might just be a soundstage away...
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