The Best All-Girls Superhero Team Is Getting A Reboot
The single greatest all-female superhero team of all time is being rebooted, and hopefully they get it right this time.
In an age of reboots, there is no piece of intellectual property that will not be given a second, third, or seventh chance for a series. Fortunately, some shows deserve the reboot treatment, and the best all-female superhero team ever is one of them. The Powerpuff Girls are being rebooted! And yes, we all may have heard this before, but we are very hopeful for this particular Powerpuff Girls reboot, because original series creator Craig McCracken is on board to get Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles back in action.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the latest Powerpuff Girls reboot has Craig McCracken acting as director and producer. The new series will be produced by Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, which is owned (via subsidiaries) by Warner Bros. Discovery International. The original series was produced initially by Hanna-Barbera, then Cartoon Network, running from 1998 to 2005. The first Powerpuff Girls reboot aired on Cartoon Network and was developed by Nick Jennings and Bob Boyle, without the involvement of Craig McCracken. At the time, McCracken was developing the series Wander Over Yonder at Disney, which eventually became a series at Netflix. The 2016 Powerpuff Girls reboot also recast the voices of Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles ( initially portrayed by Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, and E. G. Daily), and received largely negative reviews.
However, we have much hope for this new Powerpuff reboot, which is intended to be a direct continuation and expansion of the original series. There was also an attempted Powerpuff Girls reboot series at the CW, which instantly came under fire from fans. The CW version of the show was intended to be live-action and star Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, and Yana Perrault as grown-up, resentful, and disillusioned versions of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. After an initial script was leaked online, fan reaction was extremely negative, particularly about the depiction of the girls as violent, sexualized, and/or extremely bitter. The project was written by Heather Regnier and Diablo Cody, who were intended to produce alongside Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden. The live-action CW Powerpuff Girls reboot was abruptly retooled in production, and while it has not been officially canceled, it appears to have stalled in rewrites.
In addition to the Powerpuff Girls, it was announced that Craig McCracken is involved in a reboot of his other acclaimed animated series, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. He developed the series immediately after leaving the Powerpuff Girls; this will be the first reboot for this particular series, so it at least has mercifully been spared the frightening thought of a live-action, gritty version of a cartoon about imaginary friends hoping to be adopted by children. That could get too dark, too fast. It has not yet been announced whether any of the original voice cast of Powerpuff Girls will be returning for the reboot. Tom Kenny has consistently voiced either the Townsville Mayor and the Narrator through the different versions of the show, so we are hoping they will get him back at least.
