Villainess Blown Opportunity: Where Do I Start?! (Powerpuff Girls)

This one really upset me. To me, NBC pulling the plug on the Wonder Woman series moments before it could hit their air was nauseatingly egregious, but I think this is very close to being as bad. I remember how excited I was when news of a live action Powerpuff Girls series was in the works, and set to air on The CW. The genius behind the series? None other than Greg Berlanti. I'm grateful to Greg Berlanti. He's behind so many of my favorite shows. Riverdale. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. You. Hell, CW's Arrowverse! So when I heard about the PPG reboot and that Berlanti's behind it, I was all in.

And then, after years of keeping us in the dark, after years of teasing us and making us wait, The CW pulled the damn plug. Good grief!

Before I go into rant mode, a little history lesson. We have Craig McCracken to thank for the Powerpuff Girls; he originally cooked up the characters back in 1992 in a short called Whoopass Stew. Three years later, the girls were featured in a pair of shorts in the What a Cartoon! Show, which also served as the birthplace for future Cartoon Network shows such as Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, and Courage the Cowardly Dog. The first short, "Meat Fuzzy Lumpkins," featured the girls dealing with the titular Fuzzy Lumpkins, who invents a meat gun that turns anything into meat. The other short, "Crime 101," saw the girls against The Amoeba Boys, who are the most incompetent criminals ever.

It was on November 18, 1998 that The Powerpuff Girls premiered as a series, with the opening providing the familiar backstory that we all know:

"Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. These are the ingredients needed to create the perfect little girl. But Professor Utonium added one more ingredient to the equation: Chemical X!"

You know the rest.

The titular girls served as the result of that accidental experiment. Red-haired Blossom serves as the headstrong leader of the trio, blonde Bubbles is the heart and soul, and brunette Buttercup is the tough muscle. Regarding the voice cast, Catherine Cavadini provided Blossom's voice on the series, Tara Strong (later of Fairly OddParents fame) voiced Bubbles--replacing Kath Soucie in the role, and E.G. Daily (Tommy Pickles from Rugrats) voiced Buttercup. Tom Kenny (we all know that name) provided the hilarious narration, and also voiced the Mayor of Townsville.

The late 90s/early 2000s series was part of Cartoon Network building their Cartoon Cartoon lineup, which (at the time) consisted of Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, and Dexter's Laboratory, with Ed, Edd n Eddy, I Am Weasel, and Courage the Cowardly Dog joining the lineup a year later. The original series lasted six seasons; airing between 1998 and 2005, with a big screen film coming out on July 3, 2002. On July 1, 2006, Powerpuff Girls Z, an anime version of the series, premiered and lasted just one season consisting of 52 episodes, and a decade later, another Powerpuff Girls series premiered on Cartoon Network, lasting three seasons between 2016 and 2019.

Regarding the live action series, simply titled Powerpuff, the girls would have been portrayed as disillusioned 20-somethings who felt that their childhood was lost to fighting crime, but they had to get back together because the world needed them more than ever. The planned cast had Chloe Bennet (from Marvel's Agents of SHIELD) as Blossom, Dove Cameron (Mal from the original Descendants trilogy) as Bubbles, and Yana Perreault as Buttercup. Donald Faison was set to play Professor Utonium, and Robyn Lively was cast as Sara Bellum, who was the Mayor's secretary in the animated series.

The cancellation robbed us of so much, and the villainess potential was right there. I know at least two villainesses from the cartoon who could have appeared in this live action version:

Anyone remember Sedusa? Sedusa appeared in the latter half of the first episode of the 1998 series; being introduced as Professor Utonium's love interest under the name, Ima Goodlady (that's not suspicious at all). Anyway, "Ima" shows her true nasty colors to the girls, but plays sweet in front of the Professor. The climax sees "Ima" revealed as Sedusa, and she's defeated, but she returns a few more times in the series. Sedusa was quite the villainess; crafty, manipulative, ruthless, and--staying true to her name--seductive. As for who could have been perfect as Sedusa, I think Danielle Savre (Station 19 and Found) would have nailed this role; she's done that evil villainess thing before, and she's done it well.

Without question, Princess Morbucks would have been the more major villainess in this live action reboot. On the cartoon, Princess Morbucks was a spoiled, rich girl who had everything--except superpowers. She developed an obsession with wanting to be a Powerpuff Girl, and in the live action reboot, Princess Morbucks definitely would have been a rich 20-something CEO who would desire to ruin the girls' lives. I've had this casting idea of a long time: Madelaine Petsch as YA Princess Morbucks. It's perfect. Petsch played Cheryl Blossom on Riverdale, and Morbucks is basically Cheryl Blossom with more entitlement and way more insanity! Petsch would have nailed this so well, I just know it.

I also can't help but think that we probably would have have seen an evil Sara Bellum somehow. Maybe she's corrupt, maybe she's in league with the villains, if not the true big bad overall, I don't know. I have this thought because Robyn Lively was cast in that role, and she's done the villainess thing before, so I think she could have been great as an evil Sara Bellum. In any event, there were so many possibilities for villainesses in that Powerpuff live action reboot, but thanks to The CW pulling the wool over our eyes, we will never know.

I can't talk about Powerpuff Girls without discussing:

We all know who this man is. He was born Thomas Kane Roberts, but we all know him as Tom Kane. Kane provided the baritone voice of Professor Utonium, the kindly professor whose inadvertent addition of Chemical X resulted in Utonium becoming a father to a trio of bright-eyed, wonderful, superpowered girls. Girls who, in spite of their powers, Utonium worried about (I still remember the episode where Utonium created the Dynamo bot for the girls to use as a protective fighting machine). Professor Utonium wasn't Kane's only major character on the series; he also provided the campy, yet ominous voice of HIM, the demonic baddie who is feared by many (even Mojo Jojo pretty much stands at attention and gives HIM the proper respect).

In November of 2020, Kane suffered a debilitating stroke that ended up forcing him into retirement. It was in March of this year that an Instagram post featured Kane with Cavadini, Strong, and Daily, all of them huddling around Kane and speaking in their PPG voices, while Kane was in that same suit that we've seen on Utonium. It was such an emotional moment for PPG fans such as myself, but it would hit harder just two months later on May 18, 2026. On that day, Tom Kane passed away at the age of 64. Kane did so much in the world of cartoons, but his work on PPG will always be remembered so fondly and with all of the pomp and circumstance it truly deserves.