Shadow and Act has learned that The CW is pressing forward on four projects that have been in development. Naomi, The Powerpuff Girls and the Untitled Urman/Rothrock/Weir project have received pilot orders and The 4400 is gotten a straight-to-series-order.
The 4400, a reboot of the 200s series of the same name, focuses on the “4400 overlooked, undervalued, or otherwise marginalized people who vanished without a trace over the last hundred years are all returned in an instant, having not aged a day and with no memory of what happened to them. As the government races to analyze the potential threat and contain the story, the 4400 themselves must grapple with the fact that they’ve been returned with a few…upgrades, and the increasing likelihood that they were all brought back now for a specific reason.” Ariana Jackson is the writer and it is executive produced by Anna Frickle and Laura Terry. The studio is CBS Studios.
Based on the DC comic book series of the same name, Naomi “follows a teen girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the multiverse. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core, Naomi sets out to uncover its origins, and what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes. Based on the characters from DC.” It is written and executive produced by Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship while executive producers are Sarah Bremner and Paul Garnes. It’s produced by ARRAY Filmworks in association with Warner Bros. Television The comic was Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker, and illustrated by breakout artist Jamal Campbell.
The Powerpuff Girls series picks up on the team, who “used to be America’s pint-sized superheroes, now they’re disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime-fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?” It is based on the original Cartoon Network animated series and characters created by Craig McCracken. Heather Regnier and Diablo Cody are the writers and executive produce. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and David Madden also executive produce and Erika Kennaiir is a producer. It’s produced by Berlanti Productions and Vita Vera Films in association with Warner Bros. Television
The Untitled Urman/Rothrock/Weir project is “a dramedy about two millennial nuns – a devout true believer, and a new arrival who has yet to take her final vows – who start as strangers and become sisters on a funny, spiritual journey to understand their own faith and place in the Catholic church.” Claire Rothrock & Ryann Weir write and executive produce. Jennie Snyder Urman and Joanna Klein are also executive producers. The series is produced by CBS Studios and Sutton St. Productioins.
These pilots join multiple backdoor spinoff pilots at the network, such as Black Lightning spinoff Painkiller and Nancy Drew spinoff Tom Swift.