Once upon a time, The CW was a network that made original programming. It was divisive programming; a lot of people slammed CW shows as treacly, cheap-looking, superficial teenaged nonsense, but hey, teenagers deserve their trash, too.
That ended when The CW was acquired by Nexstar. The great majority of the network's programming was canceled. That included a live-action sequel to The Powerpuff Girls, the beloved Cartoon Network show about three pint-sized superhero sisters who defended Townsville from all manner of evil. The live-action show would pick with the girls years after they'd split apart and grown up to be maladjusted young adults. It was going to star Chloe Bennet as Blossom, Dove Cameron as Bubbles, Yana Perrault as Buttercup and Scrubs alum Donald Faison as Professor Utonium, the girls' father/creator.
Now, unexpectedly, the trailer for the show that never was has popped up online. You can watch it above! UPDATE: No you can't, because the trailer is being taken down. It's still making its way around the internet, though:
Who in their right mind thought this was a good idea? We really dodged a bullet with this Powerpuff Girl live-action reboot. #ThisCantBeReal pic.twitter.com/ziZdBBCJIk
— TraditionalAnimation (@Traditional2D) March 6, 2025
The comments are uniformly vicious. The commenters get in some good cracks. "Every time I watch The CW it makes me wish television had never invented in the first place," quips one. "This feels like something out of Saturday Night Live," offers another. I don't disagree that it looks like something from SNL...but I dunno, is that so terrible? The trailer recalls the broad, campy tone of the original animated series, with Tom Kenny returning to provide narration. I like how exaggerated and over-the-top everything is, although even I admit taking the villain Mojo Jojo — who in the cartoon is a maniacal talking monkey — and making him a father-son duo is a weird choice. I'm sure that talking evil monkeys are hard to animate on a shoestring CW budget.
The show is canceled and it can't hurt you. Honestly, I think it looks broad, silly and stupid in a way I would have passably enjoyed for a few minutes if I had stumbled across it while flipping through the channels. But now that will never be.
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