Live-Action 'Captain Planet' TV Series Being Developed At Netflix
A live-action Captain Planet TV series is being developed at Netflix.
A Captain Planet live-action film was previously in development at Paramount Pictures and had been announced back in 2016. The film was being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and eventually landed Glen Powell to star in it.
Just last year Powell indicated he was still working on getting it made, but did not seem optimistic it would. First, he told Collider in May, “Trust me, we have been working hard on that one for a long time. I'm optimistic about his future, but you never know the timeline."
However, in December he told IndieWire, “I’m very, very passionate about Captain Planet. I want that one to get made. And I feel like we have a very, very strong way into that world and something that I think the world wants to see, but the people that own that property have other ideas and other plans, and that’s fine. Look, I’ll just keep making movies and keep doing what I’m going to do, and eventually, we’ll see if that ever comes back around. But at the end of the day, it’s out of your control.”
The rights to the film would revert to Warner Bros. after nothing emerged from Paramount.
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For this new TV series, DiCaprio is once again producing through Appian Way and he’s joined by Arrowverse producer Greg Berlanti and his Berlanti Productions.
The series is being written by Tara Hernandez, a series writer on the insufferable The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon shows. She also wrote co-created the Mrs. Davis show at Peacock.
Powell is reportedly not involved in this series.
Barbara Pyle who created the original cartoon admitted the show was to make global climate change fun. Pyle told the Asbury Park Press in 1991, “I don’t think Captain Planet is scary. It’s empowering, it shows kids that every action counts. I don’t consider the environmental issue left wing or right wing. I consider it bipartisan.”
However, she then added, “How do you make global climate change fun?”
The show was criticized by Media Research Center Chaiman L. Brent Bozell III at the time as having “radical slants on disproven theories such as overpopulation and acid rain.”
He also said the show sought “to scare children into political activism.”
Of note, the Asbury Park Press noted in 1991 that the show embedded messages of environmental activism into each episode.
What do you make of Netflix making a live-action Captain Planet series?
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I'm sure it'll be a netflix disaster. The stars will be gay, lesbian, a couple of ;mentally ill men who wear dresses, and when they join powes, it'll become an overpowered black man fighting against the innocent white businessman who's tryiing to do the right thing. It'll be preachy, loud, and won't have a plot to save its life.
The original show was already propaganda, but under Netflix it will become even worse.