The CW placed a series of orders for the 2021-2022 season, including a pilot order for the live action series “Powerpuff Girls”.
In total, The CW announced three pilot orders and a direct withdrawal for the series, with the last being a reboot of the USA Network series “The 4400”. The other two pilots are for the DC project “Naomi” by Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship and an untitled religious drama by Claire Rothrock and Ryann Weir. All projects are created by women.
The live-action series “Powerpuff Girls” was first announced as being in development in August. Based on the Cartoon Network series created by Craig McCracken, the new series sees tiny superheroes as disillusioned young men in their twenties who resent having lost their childhood to the fight against crime. Will they agree to meet now that the world needs them more than ever?
The project comes from executive writers and producers Heather Regnier and Diablo Cody, with Cody as executive producer for Vita Vera Films. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and David Madden will serve as executive producers for Berlanti Productions. Erika Kennair will produce. Warner Bros. Television will produce.
The animated series spanned six seasons and 78 episodes between 1998 and 2005. “The Powerpuff Girls Movie” was released in 2002, while a restarted animated series began to air on Cartoon Network in 2016.
In “The 4400”, 4400 neglected, underestimated or marginalized people who disappeared without a trace in the last hundred years are all returned in an instant, having not aged one day and with no memory of what happened to them. As the government runs to analyze the potential threat and contain the story, the 4400s themselves must deal with the fact that they have been returned with some updates and the increasing likelihood that they will all be brought back now for a specific reason.
The reboot has been in development at The CW since 2018. Ariana Jackson will write and executive produce, with Anna Fricke and Laura Terry also executive producers. CBS Studios will produce.
The original version of “The 4400” was created by René Echevarria and Scott Peters. It featured actors such as Joel Gretsch, Jacqueline McKenzie, Conchita Campbell, and also served as one of the first vehicles for Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. It was shown for four seasons and 44 episodes in the USA from 2004-2007.
“Naomi” was announced as being in development in early December. The show follows the journey of a teenager from her small town in the northwest to the heights of the multiverse. When a supernatural event deeply shakes her hometown, Naomi sets out to discover her origins, and what she does will challenge everything we believe about our heroes.
DuVernay and Blankenship are hired to write and produce executive “Naomi”. DuVernay will be the executive producer of ARRAY Filmworks, with Sarah Bremner and Paul Garnes from ARRAY production. Warner Bros. Television, with which DuVernay is under a rich general agreement, will serve as a studio.
The character Naomi originally debuted in her own standalone comic book series in 2019, which was co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker. It was illustrated by Jamal Campbell. In the comics, Naomi had energy-based powers, as well as an ability to transform into a super-powerful form that guaranteed her incredible strength and other abilities.
Finally, the Rothrock / Weird project is about two millennial nuns – a true devout believer and a newcomer who has not yet made her final vows – who start out as strangers and become sisters on a funny spiritual journey to understand their own faith and place in the catholic church.
Rothrock and Weir will write and produce executives, with Jennie Snyder Urman and Joanna Klein as executive producers for Sutton St. Productions. CBS Studios, where Sutton St. is under a general agreement, will serve as the studio.