DC Comics has given fans a lot of TV dramas over the last couple years, and the past few months have seen them at their biggest on the small screen. Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow are at The CW, Fox has Gotham, and Supergirl is by its lonesome on CBS. (And that's not even counting the Vertigo shows.) For the upcoming TV season, DC is hoping to branch into the world of comedy with the half-hour Powerless, and now Vanessa Hudgens has been added to the project.
As previously revealed, Powerless will revolve around a group of employees at an insurance company in the DC Comics universe (described as one of “the worst” in America) who are envious of the various heroes and their celebrity status. Hudgens’ character, Emily Locke, doesn’t look at the crimefighters the same way as her co-workers, however. While she enjoys being able to help people out as an insurance claims adjuster, Emily just likes to get her work down without much fuss, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, she finds herself “increasingly exasperated” by the antics of the DC superheroes in her city.
Although there’s still not a lot we know about Powerless, it sounds like Hudgens’ Emily will provide a welcome contrast to the rest of the cast. While her fellow employees are enamored with what the DC heroes, both major and minor, are doing with their abilities and skill-sets, she doesn’t see the appeal in these mighty figures. One wonders how she’ll react if she comes face-to-face with one of them. Will she pretend to be honored to meet them or will she tell them how she really feels?
As a single-camera workplace comedy, Powerless will definitely be one of the weirder DC entires on the small screen, and is similar to what Marvel has in store for their own comedy, Damage Control. NBC’s last shot at a superhero TV show didn’t go well, as Constantine was cancelled after only one season, so if Powerless gets ordered to series, it ideally won’t suffer the same fate.
Hudgens rose to fame in the last decade playing Gabriella Montez in the High School Musical movies, and her other big screen appearances were in films like Sucker Punch, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Spring Breakers and Machete Kills. She most recently appeared as Betty Rizzo in Fox’s Grease Live, and if Powerless gets picked up as a series, it would be her first regular TV role.
Powerless is being written by A to Z’s Ben Queen, and he will also executive produce alongside Michael Patrick Jann, who is directing the pilot. The pilot also stars Manhattan actress Christina Kirk, though her character isn’t named. Right now, it’s has only earned the pilot order, but we’ll keep you updated on any developments concerning its future as a series at NBC.
