“By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!” Those immortal words have buried their way into the hearts and minds of many a child who grew up in the ’80s and early ’90s. “Captain Planet and the Planeteers” inspired a generation to help protect the planet against the evils of pollution, looting, and plundering. It also had a catchy as all hell theme song that is probably already going through your head. It’s been almost 30 years since the last new episode of The cartoon aired, but thanks to Netflix we may be getting some live-action planet saving in our future.
Alongside Greg Berlanti’s Berlanti Productions, Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Appian Way will be producing. Tara Hernandez who recently created and wrote the series “Mrs. Davis” for Peacock, will write the project.
An attempt at a live-action “Captain Planet” was attempted 2016 with Glen Powell as a co-writer. The series never materialized, but with the rights to the series moving back to Warner Bros. Discovery and away from Paramount, the series is moving forward again. No other stars have been attached to the series as of yet though in terms of actors or a showrunner. Of course, if you’re familiar with Captain Planet and the Planeteers as characters, you know there’s a diverse cast that’s going to be assembled to take on the evil doers trying to destroy Earth.
The animated series was noteworthy in how its first season was filled with big name talent that normally wouldn’t have been affordable for an animated series. Meg Ryan, Martin Sheen, Jeff Goldblum, and even Sting all lent their voices to villainous roles. Most of them were later replaced as the series went on, but it shows how much Ted Turner was willing to pour into the series to recruit names like that. Could Netflix pull some strings and do something similar with live-action? We guess we’ll have to see how things develop. Until then Planeteers remember, “The power, is yours!”
