It’s starting to look like a supervillain may already be working his Mojo over at the CW. Today we learned in an exclusive from Variety, that Chloe Bennet has stepped down from her role in the live-action series “The Powerpuff Girls”.
Bennet was set to star as Blossom in the pilot episode along with her co-stars, Dove Cameron (Bubbles) & Yana Perrault (Buttercup). “Powerpuff” (the show’s reworked title) had begun production in early April and after a leaked script hit the internet in mid/late May, CW CEO Mark Pedowitz ‘decided that the pilot should be reworked’.
At the time Pedowitz had this to say about the reshoot – “The reason we do pilots is, sometimes things miss. We believe in the cast and in the writers, Diablo Cody and Heather Regnier, and executive producer Greg Berlanti. In this case, the pilot didn’t work. Because we see enough elements in there, we wanted to give it another shot. It may have felt a little too campy and not rooted in reality. You learn things when you test things out. We felt, ‘Let’s take a step back and go back to the drawing board.’ This is a powerful property, it engaged a lot of interest, and we want to get it right.”
Bennet was forced to exit the pilot due to scheduling conflicts. Powerpuff was being considered for the Fall 2021-2022 season, but now they have planned to start casting for a new Blossom in the fall. Other cast members in the original pilot included Donald Faison as Professor Drake Utonium, Nicholas Podany as the show’s version of villain Mojo Jojo named Joseph “Jojo” Mondel Jr., and Robyn Lively as Sara Bellum. Talks are currently ongoing for them to return as well.
Now we’re looking at more reshoots for the show and the possibility that the other stars may also leave because of conflicts or they just lose faith that the whole project will even go forward. As much as I’d like to see this series, I’m not holding my breath waiting for this to hit the CW.
