Two Cartoon Network classics are getting reboots. Craig McCracken will join the animators at Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe to develop new versions of his beloved shows The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. Both shows earned multiple Emmys and both are available to stream on HBO Max.
The new version of The Powerpuff Girls will see Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup face familiar villains and new threats. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends will also introduce new characters in the reboot, alongside fan-favorite imaginary friends from the original series. McCracken created both shows and recently created Kid Cosmic for Netflix.
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“The Hanna-Barbera homecoming of Craig was an opportunity we could not pass up,” Sam Register, president of Cartoon Network Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, said Monday. “Along with his unparalleled sense of fun and imagination, he’s bringing two of his greatest works in The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, and we are so excited for these characters to be a part of the new legacy taking shape at the studio.”
Register was chosen to co-lead Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe back in April 2021, when WarnerMedia dropped the Cartoon Network Studios Europe Name. Tom Ascheim, then-president of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults, and Classics, joined Register. After WarnerMedia merged with Discovery to create the new Warner Bros. Discovery, Ascheim left in May, leaving Register to oversee HBSE himself. Sarah Fell, HBSE’s vice president of original kids and family animation, will oversee McCracken’s projects for the studio, reports Variety.
The original Powerpuff Girls series ran from 1998 to 2005 and won two Emmys. In 2016, Cartoon Network launched the first Powerpuff Girls reboot, which McCracken was not involved with. The reboot series ended in 2019. The CW is also developing a live-action version of the series, featuring older versions of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. That project ran into speedbumps last year after The CW ordered the pilot to be overhauled.
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends began on Cartoon Network in August 2004 and ended in May 2009. The show won seven Emmys and is widely considered one of the best shows Cartoon Network has ever aired. It centers on Mac, a young boy whose mother wants him to abandon his imaginary friend Bloo. They soon learn of a home for abandoned imaginary friends, and Mac visits Bloo every day.
McCracken left Cartoon Network after Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends ended. He went on to create Wonder Over Younger, which ran on DisneyXD from 2013 to 2016. His latest show, Kid Cosmic, debuted on Netflix in February 2021. The show’s third and final season was released on Netflix in February.
