The CW’s Live-Action ‘Powerpuff Girls’ Series Cancelled: What Went Wrong?

It may be a while before Powerpuff Girls fans take their trip to the city of Townsville. The live-action CW series initially starring Dove Cameron, Chloe Bennet and Yana Perrault was not picked up for the networks’ Fall 2021 schedule. In May 2023, the network announced that it had been scrapped overall.

Keep reading for everything we know.

The ‘Powerpuff Girls’ Initial Announcement

News that Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup were headed back to TV was first reported by Deadline in August 2020. “The Powerpuff Girls used to be America’s pint-sized superheroes. Now they’re disillusioned 20-somethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?” the series’ description read at the time. In March 2021, it was announced that Dove, Chloe and Yana were cast as the three crime-fighting sisters with Donald Faison as Professor Utonium and Nicholas Podany as Mojo Jojo.

“We have the most incredible chemistry, which is so lucky because you never know,” Dove told POPSUGAR following her casting news. “We feel like sisters already. We’re all so geeked to be a part of this. We all feel so lucky, and we’re in touch every day. We talk every day. We send voice notes constantly. It’s moving quickly, and it’s real, it’s happening.”

Per the Descendants alum’s social media post, the cast filmed the show’s pilot episode throughout the month of April 2021. At the time, The CW also shared a first look at the series.

“I’m so excited to be in jeans and a little blue tank top and then levitate and zoom out of a window,” Dove told NYLON in a separate interview at the time. “But also specifically getting to play the Powerpuff Girls. I grew up without cable and I even knew what the Powerpuff Girls were. I’m a freak for them.”

What Happened to the ‘Powerpuff Girls’ Show?

Nearly a month after filming the show’s first episode, it was reported that the show was being reworked for the network. Variety noted that the show’s leads “remain attached to the project” with plans to “film a new pilot for the series off-cycle.” Then, Mark Pedowitz, The CW president and CEO, explained why they decided to hold off on the show during a May 2021 conversation with reporters.

“The reason you do pilots is because sometimes things miss, and this was just a miss,” he said, per Variety, noting that the network believes in the cast, crew and studio. “In this case, the pilot didn’t work.”

Scroll through our gallery for everything we know about what went wrong with Powerpuff. 

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