Leonardo DiCaprio has spent the best part of a decade looking to get a movie version of the 90s Saturday morning cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers off the ground, and now it seems he’s changing tact as he teams with prolific television producer Greg Berlanti to bring the environmentalist superhero back to the small screen.
As reported by Variety, Netflix is teaming with DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Berlanti’s Berlanti Productions for a live-action television adaptation of the series, which is being written by Mrs. Davis creator and The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon writer Tara Hernandez.
Created by Barbara Pyle and Ted Turner and originally running between 1990 and 1992, Captain Planet and the Planeteers was an “edutainment” series, raising awareness about both environmental and issues, and followed five youngsters – the Planeteers – who are charged by Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, with protecting the planet from disaster, assisted by the superhero Captain Planet.
Attempts to bring Captain Planet to live action can be traced by to the mid-90s, with DiCaprio’s Appian Way coming on board in 2016 and tapping man of the moment Glen Powell to write and star in a movie adaptation that remained in development as late as 2023. With Netflix now on board, perhaps it’s finally time for Captain Planet to make his grand return and help us take pollution down to zero?
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