‘The Powerpuff Girls’ Are Going to Be Made Into a Live-Action Series

There is nothing that millennials love more than a good reboot. From Saved by the Bell to Veronica Mars, there have been television shows and movies rebooted to really play into the average millennial’s love for nostalgia and throwbacks. Now, you can add The Powerpuff Girls to that list! 

The CW has greenlit a live-action series for The Powerpuff Girls, based on the original Cartoon Network animated series created by Craig McCracken. So, when can fans of the original show expect this new series to be released?

According to Deadline, the project will feature adult versions of the originally kindergarten-aged girls from the classic animated series. They reported, “The Powerpuff Girls used to be America’s pint-sized superheroes. Now they’re disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime-fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?”

The show will be written by Diablo Cody, who also wrote the film Juno, as well as Veronica Mars writer Heather Regnier. Heather is also set to be an executive producer alongside Diablo. Warner Bros. Television, a Cartoon Network sibling within the WarnerMedia umbrella, will also produce. 

With producers and writers set in place, many are sure to wonder when the show will be airing on The CW. With the COVID-19 pandemic still very much apparent in the United States, there is no telling when this show would come to fruition due to many production delays in Hollywood. Although some shows and films are back into production — with a lot of safety guidelines attempting to be implemented — it seems unlikely that we'll see production start for The Powerpuff Girls this year.

The original Powerpuff Girls animated series was created by Craig McCracken in 1998. In that series, Professor Utonium accidentally created the elementary school-aged super team of three girls, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, by combining sugar, spice, and everything nice with the mysterious Chemical X. 

The show ran for six seasons, totaling 78 episodes between 1998 and 2005. The series ended up getting its own full-length feature film, The Powerpuff Girls Movie in 2002, while a rebooted animated series began airing on Cartoon Network in 2016.

While some fans are excited to have the storylines of the girls back, others are not so happy that the series is being reworked as live-action. One fan noted that the whole point of The Powerpuff Girls is the fact that they are cartoons. They wrote, “Ummm, the animation is a huge part of Powerpuff Girls.”

Another fan echoed the same sentiment and noted that a show like The Powerpuff Girls might be left better off the way it was. They wrote, “The entertainment industry is being disrespectful to animation. There are things you can do with animation you can’t do live action even with special effects. That’s why there are things that are better left animated, it ruins it to make it live action. See Avatar.”

While most fans were disappointed with the news, either for its new live-action take or because it is set to air on The CW, there were some more cautiously-optimistic takes on the reboot. One fan wrote, "Please don't end up ruining the franchise. Haha. Looking forward to the release!"