Home TV News The CW Pilot Update: DC’s ‘Naomi’ & ‘All American’ Spin-Off Series Ordered. ‘Painkiller’ Ditched & ‘Powerpuff’ To Be “Reworked”

The CW Pilot Update: DC’s ‘Naomi’ & ‘All American’ Spin-Off Series Ordered. ‘Painkiller’ Ditched & ‘Powerpuff’ To Be “Reworked”

by Dave Elliott

The CW Pilot Update: DC’s ‘Naomi’ & ‘All American’ Spin-Off Ordered. ‘Painkiller’ Ditched & ‘Powerpuff’ To Be “Reworked”

It’s one hit, one miss, for DC adaptations, as The CW updates its pilot slate. The US network has given a series order to Naomi, but passed on the ‘Painkiller’ pilot, which was a spin-off from ‘Black Lightning’. They’ve also picked up a spin-off from American football series ‘All American’, and announced that the ‘Powerpuff‘ pilot will go back to the drawing board.

‘Naomi’ stars Kaci Walfall (‘The Lion King’ on Broadway, ‘Army Wives’) in the title role as a teen girl whose journey takes her from a 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. The show is based on the DC Comic co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker, illustrated by Jamal Campbell which debuted in 2019.

Walfall is joined by Alexander Wraith (‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, ‘Orange Is the New Black’) as Dee, the owner of a local tattoo parlour who knows more than he is willing to tell; Cranston Johnson (Hap and Leonard‘, ‘Wu Assassins’) as Zumbado, the mysterious owner of a local used car lot; And newcomer Camila Moreno as Lourdes, a young woman with a sarcastic sense of humour who works in a vintage collectibles shop, who has an unrequited crush on Naomi.

The series comes from writer/director Ava DuVernay (‘When They See Us’, ‘Selma’) and writer Jill Blankenship (‘Arrow’, ‘The Last Ship’), who exec produce alongside Sarah Bremner and Paul Garnes. The project is produced by DuVernay’s Array Filmworks in association with Warner Bros Television.

‘All American: Homecoming’ follows a young tennis hopeful from Beverly Hills and an elite baseball player from Chicago as they contend with the high stakes of college sports, while also navigating the highs, lows and sexiness of unsupervised early adulthood at a prestigious Historically Black College.

The series stars Geffri Maya, who reprises her role as Simone Hicks from the main show. She’s joined by Peyton Alex Smith, Kelly Jenrette, Cory Hardrict, Sylvester Powell, Netta Walker and Camille Hyde. Nkechi Okoro Carroll is the writer and exec producer, with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and David Madden of Berlanti Productions also exec producing with Robbie Rogers. Berlanti Productions produces in association with Warner Bros. Television.

‘Powerpuff’ is a live-action take on the beloved animated series, which sees America’s pre-teen, pint-sized superheroes grown into 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?

Whilst the network still likes the idea of the show, they were not happy with the outcome of the pilot, so have asked for it to be reworked. Diablo Cody and Heather Regnier are staying on board as writers of the series and will do the rewrite. The cast of Chloe Bennet (Blossom), Dove Cameron (Bubbles), Yana Perrault (Buttercup), Donald Faison (Professor Utonium), and Nicholas Podany (Mojo Jojo Jr.) will also all be staying.

‘Painkiller’ was supposed to follow Jen’s ex, Khalil Payne (Jordan Calloway), a young man ridden with the guilt of his troubled past from his former life in Freeland City. As a super-enhanced killing machine known as Painkiller, he was both a member of Tobias Whale’s gang and a weapon of Agent Odell and the shadowy ASA.

It’s not clear exactly why CW opted to pass on the show, as they had previously said it “came in really solidly”. It is possible the potential series could be shopped across at HBO Max, which currently houses a bunch of other DC shows, but at the moment, the pilot is dead.

CW also passed on the pilot ‘Our Ladies of Brooklyn’, 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. Caitlin Kinnunen, Bella Ortiz, Em Haine starred.

Naomi and ‘All American: Homecoming’ join The 4400, taking the total pilot pick-ups from The CW this year to three. Out of the rest of the outstanding CW pilots, ‘Tom Swift’, which is a spin-off from ‘Nancy Drew’, is still in contention for a possible pick-up. ‘The 100’ prequel series is also still kicking around as a possible pick-up, although things have gone pretty quiet… There is also the long-muted tv adaptation of ‘The Lost Boys’, which was “rolled” again to next season, along with the potential drama ‘Maverick’.

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