Warner Bros. Pictures Animation announced Monday that a new Powerpuff Girls theatrical film is in development, revealing the project during its panel at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France — the industry’s most prominent annual gathering for animation. Studio sources confirmed the film exists but were quick to add that no deal is yet in place, meaning it has not been formally greenlit, and no writer, director, animation style, or plot details have been announced.
The move signals Warner Bros.’ intent to revive one of Cartoon Network’s most enduring properties nearly a quarter-century after its only previous big-screen outing. That 2002 film, directed by series creator Craig McCracken, pulled in just $16 million against an $11 million budget — a commercial stumble attributed partly to poor timing, crowded summer competition, and a dip in the show’s cultural momentum.
The original series, which premiered in 1998 and ran six seasons through 2005, followed Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, three super-powered girls accidentally created by Professor Utonium when Chemical X contaminated his lab experiment.
The road back to the screen has been rocky. A 2016 animated reboot drew widespread criticism from fans of the original for recasting the lead roles and diluting the show’s sharper sensibility. A live-action CW series, which would have followed the trio in their twenties and disillusioned with superhero life, collapsed after a notoriously troubled pilot — cast with Chloe Bennett, Dove Cameron, and Yana Perrault and developed by writer Diablo Cody — before being permanently shelved. A separate television reboot under McCracken was announced in 2022, though no updates have surfaced since. The new film’s relationship to that project remains unclear.
Bill Damaschke, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s president and chief creative officer, told the Annecy audience his aim is to build “a studio driven by artists, and with no singular house style” — a pitch that leaves the door open on whether the Powerpuff Girls film will be traditionally animated, CG, or a hybrid.
The studio’s confirmed theatrical slate through 2028 includes The Cat in the Hat with Bill Hader this November, followed by Bad Fairies with Cynthia Erivo, Margie Claus with Melissa McCarthy, and Oh the Places You’ll Go starring Ariana Grande and Josh Gad — suggesting Warner Bros. is pushing hard to rebuild its animation pipeline after years of scattered output.
