‘My GOD this is terrible’: The ‘Powerpuff Girls’ live-action trailer may be worse than we thought

I can’t tell if the leaked trailer for the CW’s scrapped Powerpuff Girls TV show is secretly high art, or if it’s really as bad as the internet says it is.

There’s camp, and then there’s…whatever this is. Social media is divided over a trailer for the live-action Powerpuff Girls series pilot, which was axed by the CW back in 2023 due to a combination of leadership changes at the network and some, ahem, vocal responses from fans of the original show. Powerpuff Girls the animated series ran for an impressive six seasons between 1998 and 2005, so it’s no wonder elder Gen-Zers and millennials feel a bit precious about these characters and their return to Townsville.

The live-action show was announced back in 2020, with Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, and Yana Perrault set to star as 20-something versions of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, respectively. What’s even more baffling is the fact that Powerpuff Girls somehow tapped Juno scribe Diablo Cody to write.

We never got much of an official look at what the CW’s take on Powerpuff Girls would’ve looked like, aside from some character designs and questionable set photos showing Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles’ signature costumes — until now.

The lost live-action Powerpuff Girls trailer has surfaced online, and all I can say is…huh?

Years later, the first full-length trailer for the Powerpuff Girls TV show has been found, and oh boy, is it a doozy. From Bubbles being a functioning alcoholic to visual effects that look like they were inserted via iMovie, I think it’s clear to see why the CW chose not to pick up this series for a full season.

If this teaser looks like it was plucked straight out of the Riverdale-verse, that’s because it basically is. Again, Oscar winner Diablo Cody was…fully on board with this? Making a campy satire of a beloved children’s show isn’t necessarily the worst idea, but this definitely ruins the facade for those of us who grew up with the OG Powerpuff Girls. Users on X (Twitter) seemed to agree, with one writing: “My GOD this is terrible.”

The girls accidentally killing Mojo, Blossom flirting with Jojo (Nicholas Podany), Bubbles selling memorabilia on Hollywood Boulevard…I don’t think the CW’s iteration of Powerpuff Girls would’ve lasted long, but based on the trailer alone, I think we should all be grateful we’ve been spared. Still, thanks to the Diablo Cody of it all, some people were more optimistic about what this show would’ve looked like given more resources. One user wrote: “This actually looks funny.”

I guess we’ll never know what a fleshed-out version of this adult-centric Powerpuff Girls series would’ve looked like, but the teaser alone is enough of a voyage into uncanny valley territory for me. Given its fate, I doubt we’re going to see any more of could’ve been for the Powerpuff Girls, but if there’s one lesson studios should pull from this, it’s don’t mess with our late 90s, early 00s nostalgia, thank you very much.