Thomas Wolfe once wrote you couldn't go home again. However, in Hollywood, that isn't entirely true.
After developing series for Disney and other outlets (i.e. Wander Over Yonder), Craig McCracken is returning to Cartoon Network to helm another relaunch of The Powerpuff Girls.
Photo courtesy Cartoon Network/Everett Collection.
While a live-action series from Greg Berlanti at CW has run into some issues of late, it's still being considered in development, though I doubt now it'll still end up at CW after the network has gradually ended its DC Comics line of dramas. McCracken, meanwhile, will keep his creations as grade school students (the 2016 series moved them into elementary school), or even retcon them back to preschool.
But, that ain't all.
TV Line is also reporting that McCracken is relaunching the Emmy winning Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends as a preschool series, aimed squarely for CN's Cartoonito block, with a new roster of imaginary playmates to debut.
Stay tooned.
5 comments:
Before I found out about the news, I saw one of his Tweets saying: “Though I’m not currently working anywhere at the moment I’m definitely not planning on retiring. The industry is just in a weird place right now. Studios are afraid of new ideas and all they want now are pre-existing IPs.” After reading it, I suspected he was no longer working for Netflix. Can’t say I blame him. Among the projects Netflix canceled was Toil and Trouble, created by Craig’s wife, Lauren. Craig, of course, was VERY lucky to have finished Kid Cosmic on his own terms.
As great as it is for him to return to the original PPG, with which I actually grew up, and take Foster’s in a preschool-aimed direction, I’m still wondering what was planned for S3 of WOY, which is why I’m always coming up with theories and predictions, such as what Star Force Enforcement Force (which Craig described as a team of space cops - and the alleged threat worse than Lord Dominator, I might add - planned to play a big role in S3) look like. I feel kind of lonely being the only one to do that. Still, even if he doesn’t return to Disney for WOY’s 10th anniversary, we fans will support his work all the same and we’ll have more time to keep sending the message to Disney until we finally know what S3 is about. Are we to believe we’ll never know all about it just because the show didn’t click with many viewers? I know I’m not, but I’m sure WOY can wait just a little longer. Technically speaking, it is also a pre-existing IP, and they can’t leave it on a cliffhanger forever. Besides, April Winchell and Tom Kenny are now sexagenarians, and there’s no telling how much longer they (and the other older VAs who might have a part in S3 for that matter) have to live.
Anyhow, I’m looking forward to seeing where these reboots will go.
If he can retain the rights to Wander Over Yonder, he could take it to HBO Max next.
That would definitely be ideal and logical, since Disney has been constantly shunning it - one of the company’s recent pieces, Chibiverse, has characters from Phineas and Ferb, Gravity Falls (which, along with Amphibia and The Owl House, is still treated by social media like it’s the Rolls-Royce of DTVA shows), Star vs. the Forces of Evil, the revamped DuckTales… y’know, overappreciated shows as well as Big City Greens and The Ghost and Molly McGee, but no Wander Over Yonder, even though the show first aired on Disney Channel. The aforementioned shows can stay with Disney, but in the case of Wander, what even is the point of them owning the rights to that show if they can’t be bothered to acknowledge its existence, much less let Craig end it his way? I always felt it’d find a good home at CN (Netflix is out of the question).
So, I just found out that Wander and Lord Hater make a very brief (and I mean brief) cameo in a recent Chibiverse short, which means my previous comment and your HBO Max comment are pretty much obsolete. I think Disney’s trying to get back in the Wander fans’ good graces, but it’ll take more than split second cameos to do that.
Negotiation with Craig McCracken might resolve the issue at some point.
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