New 'Power Rangers' Connected Story Universe Will Include A New Movie And TV Show
There's good news and bad news for Power Rangers fans today. Bad news first: if you liked the 2017 Power Rangers movie and hoped for more adventures with that same cast, that ain't happening. Good news: a new movie and TV show are in the works, as part of a new, cohesive Power Rangers connected story universe which will be overseen by a single creator. Get the details below.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Jonathan Entwistle, who created Netflix's The End of the F***ing World and co-created the streaming service's unconventional teen superpower series I Am Not Okay With This, has been tasked with serving as "a conductor of a connected story universe that will bridge across multiple platforms." Entwistle will oversee and direct both film and television adaptations, which seems to indicate that the previous big-screen iteration will stand alone as a one-and-done anomaly, a solid example of a 21st century franchise non-starter. THR reports that "name talent" will be involved in the new productions.
Hasbro, which bought the Power Rangers brand in 2018, acquired a production arm called eOne late last year, and that company is now becoming more involved in the development of Hasbro brands across multiple platforms. In December, word came out that Entwistle was hard at work on a new Power Rangers movie at Paramount, which featured "a time travel element that brings the kids to the 1990s, and in Back to the Future fashion, they have to find a way to get back to their present." That project has now shifted over to eOne (in yet another example of Paramount offloading potentially valuable content), and the scope of Entwistle's involvement is increasing to both film and television. There's no word yet about whether the show will also travel back to the 1990s.
"This is an unbelievable opportunity to deliver new Power Rangers to both new and existing generations of awaiting and adoring fans. We'll bring the spirit of analog into the future, harnessing the action and storytelling that made this brand a success," Entwistle said in a statement.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers began as an American repurposing of a Japanese series called Super Sentai, but became a mega-popular hit on its own once it reached U.S. shores. It initially spawned two theatrically-released films (1995's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and 1997's Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie) as well as more than 20 different incarnations of TV shows. Here's a collection of "classic" moments from the original series: