That’s Bruce Wayne to you. He’s B Dubs to his cousin. #Powerless pic.twitter.com/Za55BXJXQk— Powerless (@NBCPowerless) January 13, 2017
Originally, NBC’s Powerless was going to focus on the everyday lives of a group of insurance adjusters working within the DC Comics Universe, who have all learned to deal with the messes that superheroes leave in their wake. Starring Vanessa Hudgens, Danny Pudi, Alan Tudyk, Ron Funches, and more, it was originally meant to be a story about a woman (Hudgens) learning to stand up and fight for the right of everyday people, who are tired of having to work around the catastrophes that superheroes often leave behind. However, when original creator Ben Queen left as showrunner, the entire series was revamped.
Apparently victim to overwhelmingly negative early reviews, and creative differences between Queen and the network, Powerless’ premise was significantly altered. Instead of Hudgens and the rest of the cast working as insurance adjusters, the series will instead now follow them as workers in a subsidiary branch of Wayne Enterprises, who are all trying to develop new technologies to keep everyday citizens safe from the superpowered mayhem going on around them.
In a brand new promo video [above] for the series, NBC has revealed that Alan Tudyk’s cartoonish boss isn’t just another arrogant, powerful figurehead in the DC Comics Universe, but actually happens to be the cousin of none other than Bruce Wayne himself. Time to meet, Van Wayne.
While it’s previously been confirmed and reported that Powerless will have its fair share of ties to notable DC superheroes, this is still an interesting development. Not only does it tie one of the show’s lead cast members to the character who is, arguably, the most popular and well-known DC superhero of all time, but it adds an interesting twist to the traditional Wayne family tree. Bruce Wayne actually showing up at all in the series is probably unlikely. But, with other major DC superheroes confirmed to be playing their own roles in the show’s plot in some form or another, this is an interesting and unexpected addition to the Powerless’ comic book connections.
Understandably, NBC has been careful about releasing Powerless only when they’re the most confident in it. It’s not hard to see why either considering how unique of a place Powerless is sitting in right now. Set to be the first major sitcom set within a comic book universe, it has the potential to completely blow open and explore previously uncharted territory of the genre, which is saying a lot since both Marvel and DC have continued to expand and grow their television projects over the past few years. Unlike the Marvel Netflix shows, though, or even the CW TV series, Powerless has the opportunity to give a new perspective to a comic book universe. The only thing that still needs to be determined is if it’ll be able to live up to that promise, or if it’ll disappointingly fall short.
Powerless will premiere on NBC on Thursday, February 2nd @ 8:30pm ET/PT.
Source: Twitter
