The jury’s still out on whether the world wants or needs a live-action version of Craig McCracken’s beloved Cartoon Network series The Powerpuff Girls—especially one that casts the li’l superheroes as resentful twentysomethings. But when and if the CW pilot for Powerpuff makes it to the airwaves, it’ll be without one of the biggest names in its previously announced cast: Agents of SHIELD’s Chloe Bennet, who has left the show.
And since we know you’re wondering, the reason given was that old standby of vagueness: “scheduling conflicts,” according to Variety, which broke the news. The trade also reminds us that the initial Powerpuff pilot (directed by Maggie Kiley, co-written by Heather Regnier and Diablo Cody) had been delayed after the CW decided it needed a complete do-over. “The reason you do pilots is because sometimes things miss, and this was just a miss,” CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz told told Variety back in May while stressing the network still believed in the project. “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.”
Though Warner Bros. hoped to keep Bennet in the cast, the timing didn’t work out, so the role of Blossom will be recast. Still aboard Powerpuff as it moves ahead in its newest incarnation are Dove Cameron (as Bubbles) and Yana Perrault (Buttercup); Variety notes that the other previously announced stars (Donald Faison, Nicholas Podany, Robyn Lively) are in “currently ongoing” talks to keep them as part of the show.
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