Where 'Power Rangers 2' Could Possibly Take The Series

After an impressive opening weekend for a 25-year-old franchise, a sequel to Power Rangers seems inevitable. But here's the big question: what's going to happen in it?

The new film is essentially a reboot of the series and Saban is confident enough to have envisioned doing five or six or seven more movies. Fortunately, they have more than enough material to mine for story possibilities. For those of you that aren't aware, there are 831 episodes in the series so far, almost 18 straight days of ridiculous giant robot-morphin' action to enjoy. What will they look to for Power Rangers 2? Let's take a look at some options. Naturally, all film and series spoilers are on the table.

This is the most obvious route a sequel will take, especially for those who stayed seated during the Power Rangers movie all the way to the post-credits scene. During the last scene the kids are shown back home in high school detention. The teacher is taking roll call and keeps asking over and over for one "Tommy Oliver," but there's no answer.

Fans will immediately know what this means, as Tommy Oliver is the name of the original Green Ranger from the show. While the movie changed the origin of the Green Ranger and made it so that Rita Repulsa was the original one, the next film could show off the armor's successor.

The Green Ranger originally premiered in a five-part story arc called Green With Evil that kicks off as a new kid named Tommy Oliver rolls into town. He surprises everyone in a martial arts tournament when he fights the Red Ranger to a tie. That just doesn't happen, so it attracts the interests of Rita Repulsa, who decides that the only way to fight greasy teens is with one of her own. She kidnaps poor Oliver and takes him to the moon (as you do) to put him under a spell. She turns him into the evil Green Ranger and sets him loose on rest of the heroes, causing all kinds of chaos before they get him to snap out of it. Then they realize he was alright after all, and the team gets a new, moody, anti-hero companion in the process.

But hang on...there might be a twist for Power Rangers 2. The new cast wants the Green Ranger to be a woman. As new Red Ranger actor Dacre Montgomery told THR in an interview"

"A lot of the cast and I have discussed that we think it should be a girl. It makes it even. Three girls, three boys... [The scene teasing Oliver is] left blank. It's a cliffhanger. Whoever you're going to drop into that position, whether it's a girl, it's inevitably going to create drama. It'll be interesting to drop that drama into it and see how we all relate to it and work with it."

The Green Ranger by design causes drama, as he was constantly butting heads with the Red Ranger. Original Green Ranger actor Jason David Frank was so excited about his cameo in the new film (that was cut!) that he got kicked out of the theater and missed the post-credits scene. But he did have thoughts on the return of the character he made famous:

"No matter what Haim Saban does, people are going to love it. He would not allow something that fans will not like. After watching the movie, anything is possible. It doesn't matter what color your skin is. It doesn't matter if you're female or you're male."

It makes complete sense for a sequel, and also will help set up future Power Rangers movies and sell that many more toys and apps. (C'mon, as fun as it is, we all know the true purpose of Power Rangers and it's not friendship.)

So if they have a Green Ranger, who's going to be the even bigger bad guy to fight at the end when they all team up? Lord Zedd might be the best bet. The first purely American-made villain for the show makes sense for this darker and edgier take on the material, as he was truly evil to the Rangers and made some disgusting minions to help him out. His original incarnation was so scary that parents complained in droves, causing the show's creators to scale him back a bit.

The way they did that was the same way most people scale back a bit – marriage. The evil Lord Zedd marries Rita Repulsa in an episode called "The Wedding," where he's given a love potion that makes him into a lovey-dovey mope around her. He's still not a nice guy, but he wasn't scaring the toddlers anymore. Of course, a movie tailor-made for teens doesn't have to worry about that.

He is a serious enemy to the Green Ranger though, and even destroys poor Oliver's powers at one point to create a team of Evil Power Rangers. That only offers another reason for him to be included in a sequel. Plus, you can't deny the dude has style. Look at that staff!

Blue Ranger actor R.J. Cyler wants his traditionally dorky character Billy to get a bigger part in the sequel, perhaps by finding a significant other. "I want to see Billy find love," he says, "But what would be really cool is if whatever next person is added to the group, if they do go that route, if that is Billy's love interest."

The original Billy has plenty of plot points that could be mined for a funny individual arc, including an episode where he gets an evil clone or the time he gets turned into a child (twice!) or the episode where it's revealed that he has icthyophobia, or fear of fish. Rita takes advantage of that by putting a spell on him and making him fight a fiend called the Goo Fish monster. Billy eventually overcomes it and shows off his new fearlessness by engaging in that most stressful of activities – fishing.

So, uh, maybe the relationship story is the way to go...

The Red Ranger actor wants the sequel to be even bigger. "I think the most interesting thing for me would be, where we left off, the stakes being raised even more, to a global scale could be kind of fun," Dacre Montgomery said in an interview.

Since the Power Rangers movie spends the majority of its running time setting up the characters and the world before descending into giant monster mayhem, there's no reason the sequel couldn't jump right into it from the start.

One way to do that would be to adapt Doomsday, a two-part story that saw Rita Repulsa teleporting the entire city of Angel Grove to another dimension while they were in the midst of celebrating their first ever "Power Rangers Day." She summons a new Zord, appropriately named Cyclopsis, to destroy them and it almost works, as the Ranger's attacks are useless and their Zords almost get completely obliterated by the one-eyed monster.

The Green Ranger finally figures out that if they go back into battle and keep overwhelming it by switching to their new, bigger forms, it won't be able to keep up. This allows them to show off all of their new zord forms, such as the Mechagodzilla-influenced Dragonzord and the ultimate form, Ultrazord, which is a ridiculous zord combination.

After finally defeating it, Zordon tells them they can give up their powers to return to their normal teenage lives, but they all refuse. It would be a perfect note for a movie ending, barring another end credits sequence to set up the next film.

If they really want destruction, just look towards the very first episode of Power Rangers RPM, titled "The Road to Corinth." This 2009 season was supposed to be the very last of the show, so they went absolutely nuts with this thing, making something that's clearly influenced by post-apocalyptic films like Mad Max. It kicks off with a warzone scene that features people fleeing for their lives while robots blast everyone with lasers and bomb them to pieces. They are seeking refuge in the dome of Corinth, because the world is otherwise gone.

Fortunately, the Power Rangers are there. These guys have a tougher job than their predecessors, what with there being no civilization and all, but there's still time for these teens to have plenty of attitude. (You'd think that the end of humanity might curb that a bit, but you'd be wrong.)

These RPM characters also have new armor that feature wheels of sorts on their arms and legs, that rev up and give a little more oomph for strikes.

If they want to go for some different armors for the sequel, they could look towards the fourth season, Power Rangers Zeo. This is the first of many times they underwent a redesign from the traditional and relatively plain Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers armors, and the first two episodes of Zeo ("A Zeo Beginning") shows how they get them.

This show starts as the Rangers are getting over the destruction of their command center from the last season, where they lost their power coins and can no longer morph. Fortunately they are given new wrist-worn morphers called Zeonizers and new masks with symbols on them. Their powers are pretty much the same, but they get new zords based on mythological creatures, including a Sphinx and Phoenix. They definitely are an upgrade.

If Saban needs more Power Rangers for future installments, there are dozens  to choose from.

Do they need more mistaken-enemies-turned friends? How about the Thunder Ninjas, who show up in Power Rangers Ninja Storm? They fight our heroes because they think that their master killed their parents but oops, it was the bad guy who told them that. When they find out they all have a good laugh and team up.

Or how about the villains of Power Rangers Jungle Fury, who turn out to be their masters who only fought them because they were being mind-controlled?

Perhaps they could go a more ridiculous route, such as the time the team are members of an intergalactic police force called Power Rangers SPD? Their boss is one Supreme Commander Anubis "Doggie" Cruger and yes, he's a human-sized space dog.

There are dozens of Power Rangers over the show's hundreds of episodes to choose from, so they could add a few new ones to the group in a cinch. The problem would be keeping the dynamic of the original crew together, as it's the camaraderie and in-fighting of the original team that keeps things grounded in the little bit of reality the movies can offer. If they really want to plan a lengthy franchise, they can do what the show did and have the original Power Rangers become mentor figures to new generations of fresh-faced Rangers, all of them teaming up to fight off evil wherever it rears its big, robotic head.