One of the most interesting things about entertainment are the stories of what might have been. There are countless tales of movies that almost happened, actors that were almost cast in iconic roles, and even interesting crossovers that nearly were reality all populating some “what if” reality that we really wish we could visit. Among those things we’ll never get to see is a crossover between two unlikely worlds, that of Batman and The Powerpuff Girls. It turns out that Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken once pitched the idea of a Batman’s biggest foe, the Joker, facing off with the trio — but Warner Bros. shot it down.
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All the way back in 2016, McCracken wrote on Tumblr that there was the idea for an episode featuring the Joker arriving in Townsville and causing problems with the Powerpuff Girls having to take him on — and having to actually deal with the Mayor being on the Joker’s side — but Warner Bros. wouldn’t allow it. McCracken revealed he even knew exactly which designs for the villain they wanted to use, too.
“When we did the original series, I really wanted to do an episode where the Joker came to town and started committing crimes,” McCracken wrote at the time. “The idea was that The Mayor was so excited to have a celebrity villain in town that he actually tried to thwart The Girls from stopping him because The Joker was finally putting Townsville on the map! We wanted to use Bruce Timm’s designs from Batman the animated series and get Mark Hamill to do the voice. Unfortunately, Warner Brothers said no.”
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McCracken re-confirmed the shot-down crossover idea again in 2021 on X, reiterating the same general idea, with the Joker coming to town and the Mayor not wanting to let the Powerpuff Girls stop his crimes because he was so starstruck, as well as Warner Bros. refusing to allow it to happen. For fans, the fact that the crossover was killed by Warner Bros. feels like the real crime. The original The Powerpuff Girls, which first debuted on Cartoon Network in 1998, was a huge hit, ultimately running for a total of six seasons before ending in 2005. The animated Joker was also wildly popular, appearing in Batman: The Animated Series as voiced by Hamill,
What might make the fact that this crossover was never to be is how seemingly not weird of an ask it actually was. The idea of the Joker appearing in a Cartoon Network series in the late 90s/early 2000s wasn’t entirely a foreign concept. Cartoon Network has aired various animated DC series over the years, including Justice League and Justice League Unlimited — with Justice League even featuring the Joker at one point. Of course, that also makes a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things considering that Cartoon Network is owned by Warner Bros. Knowing that the avenues and potential for the Joker/Powerpuff Girls crossover were there but simply denied just feels like a real loss. After all, it would have been hilarious to see Bubbles go up against the Joker – or any of the Girls, really. The dynamic between the characters would have been a lot of fun and it would have visually been interesting as well, given the character design that McCracken wanted to use.
But while the Joker/Powerpuff Girls crossover never happened on screen, that doesn’t mean the two worlds were destined not to collide. It did actually happen, just in a game. MultiVersus features not only the Joker but The Powerpuff Girls as playable characters. It may not be the animated crossover fans wanted, but it’s still pretty cool — and we’ll take it.