The CW’s pilot of “Powerpuff,” the live-action series based on the popular Cartoon Network animated show “The Powerpuff Girls,” is being overhauled and re-shot because the initial pilot was “too campy” and not as rooted in reality as network execs would have liked. The CW also offered an update on the fate of “The 100” prequel on a press briefing Tuesday on the network’s fall schedule
“The reason you do pilots is because sometimes things miss, and this was just a miss,” said The CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz about “Powerpuff.” “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.”
“In this case the pilot didn’t work,” he said. “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.”
Calling “The Powerpuff Girls” a “powerful property,” Pedowitz added that that the show had garnered a lot of interest, “so we want to get it right before we put it out.”
As previously reported, “Powerpuff” stars Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, Yana Perrault and Donald Faison — in addition to the rest of the cast, and writers and producers — will continue to be involved in the project as the network films a new pilot off-cycle. The original Cartoon Network series was created by Craig McCracken. Cody is executive producing “Powerpuff” via Vita Vera Films. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden are executive producing through Berlanti Productions. Erika Kennair will produce. Maggie Kiley directed and executive produced the pilot.
Separately, Pedowitz offered a brief update on whether “The 100” prequel is still in the works at The CW.
“I bet you’re gonna be shocked by this: There are still discussions going on,” he said. “It is not done in any way shape or form, but there’s discussions still happening.”