It seemed too good to be true when The Powerpuff Girls — the candy-colored pint-sized superhero cartoon that ruled the late 1990s through the mid-aughts — was getting a gritty, live-action reboot. That’s because it was, in a sense: Variety reports (via The A.V. Club) that the revival has been canceled, but not because The CW, which ordered it, no longer wants it. It’s because they want to take a second look.
The network was unveiling some of the fall series, including Ava DuVernay’s superhero show Naomi and the spin-off All American: Homecoming. But Powerpuff — as the reboot was dubbed — is not. The aim was to reintroduce the characters as disillusioned twentysomethings who were disappointed that they had spent their childhood battling crime. This is due to the fact that it is being reworked. There was no explanation provided. Maybe they wanted to make things a little less gritty. Maybe they’re keeping it gritty, but they realized their version was a little (or a lot) off.
Variety reveals that they’re keeping all four leads — Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, Yana Perrault, and Donald Faison — as well as “the rest of the cast and the creative team.” A gritty Powerpuff Girls certainly not a bad idea, and it would be fitting with such renegade superhero shows like Umbrella Academy and The Boys, which effectively do a more comedic version of Watchmen, dissecting comic book tropes and delivering more adult fare. So it sounds like the CW is giving the reboot team a second chance to get it right the first time.
