BEVERLY HILLS, CA – AUGUST 04: Actress Chloe Bennet arrives at the Disney ABC Television Group TCA … [+] Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 4, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)

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Back in 2020, fans were deeply confused when the CW announced it would be making a live-action Powerpuff Girls series starring Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, and Yana Perrault as Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup respectively.

But despite making it all the way to filming, the show was axed when leadership changed at the CW and quite possibly because the show was…very bad. There was a filmed pilot that was abandoned in order to be reworked, and now, a trailer for that original pilot (or maybe more?) has somehow surfaced on the internet.

I am in no way clear on how exactly this happened, but the trailer is now online as “Lost Media” enthusiasts hunted it down somehow. It’s a full three and a half minute spot showing the concept of the series and how the girls look in action. It is deeply terrible:

If this is indeed the pilot that was supposed to be scrapped and reworked, that’s one thing, but if this was after that? Yikes. Either way, it’s pretty clear that even with an attempt at being camp, it just does not work at all. There is nary a laugh to be found in the entire trailer, and the concept of the Powerpuff Girls growing up to be troubled twenty-somethings is bizarre in the first place, even if somehow Oscar-winner Diablo Cody was behind this idea.

The show does not seem to have done wonders for the acting careers of these actresses cast. Despite being beloved as Quake in Agents of Shield, Chloe Bennet’s highest profile project since 202 has been six episodes of Dave, even as many fans very much want her to return to the MCU as Quake. Dove Cameron has mostly focused on music with small roles in things like Vengeance, or runs in shows like Big Nate and Schmigadoon, both now off the air. Unless I’m missing something, I cannot find an IMDB page for Yana Perrault at all.

I’m not going to say it’s a shame that this show was scrapped because well, I don’t think this would have been anything but a disaster, judging by this trailer. It reminds me of the CW Wonder Woman show that was also killed before airing, starring Friday Night Lights’ Adrianne Palicki. That was back in 2011 and guess who was also in that show’s pilot? Pedro Pascal, who would go on to be A) super famous and B) star in Wonder Woman 1984, funnily enough.

Lost media is always fascinating, and even if this is awful, it’s fascinating to see.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.