Chloe Bennet Exits the Live-Action 'Powerpuff Girls' Reboot

Why start a new franchise when you can just rehash a successful original storyline from the past, an IP based on a book, or a "true story" that you can then bend and mold to your own narrative liking? Or, even better yet, why not take a beloved children's cartoon and then create a live-action series based on it?

Heck, it was done with Riverdale, Winx, and now even Powerpuff Girls are going live, and the cast has been revealed. However, it seems like there are hiccups behind the scenes.

Powerpuff Girls is going to be handled by the CW, and according to Vulture, the network has appointed the writer of Young Adult and Juno, Diablo Cody, to lead the project.

While many details about the new live series are unknown, showrunners have spilled the tea on which actresses will bring the sugar, spice, and everything nice to the upcoming reboot. But one not-so-nice issue arose — timing.

Yana Perrault, Chloe Bennet, and Dove Cameron were set to star as Buttercup, Blossom, and Bubbles, respectively — a fact that was later confirmed by the actresses on their social media pages. Unfortunately, according to Variety, a scheduling conflict arose that forced Chloe to have to depart the series.

Casting for a new Blossom is set to begin in the fall. Show creators say that in the series, the three leads, who are all in their mid-to-late twenties, will be facing life after their superhero days, and they're dealing with quite a bit of trauma.

When news dropped that the popular Cartoon Network series was getting an "adultified" version on the CW, it generated a lot of buzz. It followed the now common jaded-superhero narrative: The girls are all grown up and a little upset at their heroic pasts robbing them of an actual childhood.

The series was originally planned to be released in the fall of 2021, but the show won't be making that air date due to behind-the-scenes issues that resulted in the pilot having to be reshot. Those reshoots seem to be the reason for Chloe's scheduling conflict.

While the news of the show's delay may spell big trouble for all those involved, there have been many successful series on TV that shot multiple pilots, including Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, and Star Trek.

The delay might actually end up being a blessing in disguise for Powerpuff Girls, as the CW is launching a bunch of new shows in its fall 2021 line-up. When the show debuts at another time, it may stand out more. Mid-season premieres seem to have worked out for classic shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Office, and Grey's Anatomy.

The CW's home to some popular shows, but they're not exactly known for being paragons of cinematic excellence. I mean, Arrow had a dedicated fanbase, but when you see everyone running around in their costumes with PS2-era special effects, it's kind of hard to take the show seriously.

And that was one of the CW's biggest franchises in recent years. So when Mark Pedowitz talks about the Powerpuff Girls pilot being "too campy," one can only assume what was shot.

In an interview with Variety, Pedowitz said, "The reason you do pilots is because sometimes things miss, and this was just a miss. 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."

Dove Cameron, aka Bubbles, said that she's "very excited" to reshoot for the series. "It's a really big piece of IP, and it's tonally very specific. Like getting it right, making everybody happy, and also making sure that it translates. It's so specific. We're removing some elements and we're replacing others. I think the script is going to get another whack, and it's just going to be a slightly different approach, but everything else is going to stay the same."