"Powerless" may count Batman's cousin Van Wayne among its central cast of characters, but that doesn't mean the Dark Knight himself will be stopping by anytime soon. Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s press tour, executive producer Justin Halpern made it clear the show would settle for no less than Ben Affleck's Batman.
“Even if you want to see [Bruce Wayne’s] hands pop into frame, you’d have to go get [Ben] Affleck; you can’t just have anyone’s hands,” he told reporters. As such, it seems as though the show will stick to one-sided phone calls, like when Van calls "B-Dubs" in the most recent "Powerless" promo.
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“Usually they’re very protective of their characters — for good reason. A lot of people invest a lot in these characters,” he added, referring to Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment. “We ask for as much as we can get, and we see where we can find a happy medium. Like anything, they wanted to make sure they didn’t think the show was terrible before they let us use stuff.”
However, that doesn't mean the show will abandon its source material altogether. The Justice League and all its famous members will exist inside the "Powerless" universe, but the series will stick to lesser known characters. “The idea is that we’re going to pull from the entire canon of the comics,” said executive producer Patrick Schumacker. “You’re going to see characters you’re familiar with if you are a hardcore comic book fan. A lot of those heroes, I would look them as underdogs.”
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Like The CW's "Arrow"-verse, "Powerless" won't take place in the same universe as Warner Bros.' DC movies. “We don’t treat the films as things that have happened in this world,” Halpern explained.
“It is ultimately Bruce Wayne’s company, but this takes place in Charm City, a totally made up city for this version of the show,” Schumacker pitched in. “We’re saying this takes place on Earth-P.”
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Set within the DC Comics universe, “Powerless” centers on the everyday lives of people in a world populated by super-powered heroes and villains, including the aforementioned Jack O’Lantern and Crimson Fox. The sitcom follows Vanessa Hudgens as Emily Locke, who begins her new job as director of research and development for Wayne Security, a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises, which specializes in products that make defenseless bystanders feel a little safer as they try not to become collateral damage in the battles between superheroes and supervillains.
Also starring Danny Pudi, Ron Funches and Christina Kirk, “Powerless” premieres Thursday, Feb. 2, at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
(via Entertainment Weekly)