Netflix Wins the ‘Captain Planet’ Adaptation Race — the Very Polluted History of Reviving the ’90s Cartoon Fave

The powers at Netflix have combined, and now Captain Planet is set to return to screens. The streamer will adapt the cartoon hero from the ’90s as a live-action series.

Deadline broke the story on Thursday (July 17). The series is being produced through Greg Berlanti‘s Berlanti Productions, along with Leonardo DiCaprio‘s production company Appian Way and Warner Bros. Television. The animated hero with a soft spot for Earth’s environmental issues is being brought to the screen by writer Tara Hernandez, best known for her work on Mrs. Davis and The Big Bang Theory.

Based on a concept by Ted Turner, the original show aired on TBS and in syndication, first as Captain Planet and the Planeteers in 1990 and later as The New Adventures of Captain Planet in 1996, teaching kids about environmental issues through his Planeteers. The story follows five teens from different corners of the Earth who are able to summon the eco-hero (voiced by David Coburn) through magical rings. When they encountered a threat they couldn’t handle alone, they combined their powers of earth, fire, wind, water, and heart to call forth Captain Planet, who helped defeat the eco-villain of the week.

It has been a long and arduous road to bring Captain Planet back to screens of any size since his series ended in 1996 (though he did briefly return in a special episode of OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes in 2017).

In the 2010s, Appian Way Productions and Paramount Pictures attempted to develop a live-action adaptation of the Earth-friendly hero. According to reports, the script followed a down-and-out Captain Planet who needed the kids to help save him, rather than the other way around.

Glen Powell was originally attached to co-write the feature with Jono Matt, as well as play the destitute Captain as he attempts to rebuild his career and the planet he swore to protect. But this was back in his Scream Queens days before Top Gun: Maverick and Twisters made him a household name, so the chances of a blue-hued Powell saving the planet these days via magical rings and a spiffy spandex costume are practically nil. Powell is no longer attached to the project.

Captain Planet remains a prominent part of pop culture thanks to heavy doses of millennial nostalgia and the occasional parody that surfaces. In 2011, Funny or Die famously cast Don Cheadle as Captain Planet in a viral short, while Robot Chicken made him a recurring character in their stop-motion sketches. In 2021, the Rick and Morty episode “A Rickconvenient Mort” parodied a wrathful Planetina (voiced by Alison Brie), who was rescued by Morty after her “kids” (now in their late 40s) attempted to sell her for profit.

In 2025, the Captain found a new home in print as a comic book through Dynamite Comics from writer David Pepose and artist Eman Cassallos.

Netflix’s Captain Planet series is currently in development. No casting or release date has yet been announced.