A Closer Look At The Power Rangers Morphers

The morpher is the quintessential part of a Power Rangers costume. It's the on button, so to speak. The heartbeat. While there's been more than a dozen incarnations of the device, fans still have a strong memory of the first Power Morpher version seen in the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Power Coins and all.

Of course fans know that the original morphers were simply repurposed Dino Bucklers from the Zyuden Sentai Zyuranger series from Japan. But it worked! The Rangers could easily access their morphers in case they needed to and the transformation sequence was instantaneous and they went off into battle right after. They could be easily hidden on their school clothes (they really didn't go anywhere else) and nobody was none the wiser, which is odd considering the color cues.

I digress.

Thursday morning, Entertainment Weekly released the first look at the Rangers' costumes they'll be sporting in the upcoming Lionsgate reboot. Obviously there was going to be some sort of major differences to keep up with today's audiences, but these are the most alien yet of the franchise. They're metallic and colorful and definitely distinctively Power Rangers, but there's something else completely new about them this time around.

"It's tricky finding a new language for a superhero costume," production designer Andrew Menzies (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) admits. "Ours is an alien costume that grows on them, that's not man-made. You can't win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans."

The article mentions that the Rangers will don "translucent extraterrestrial armor that crystallizes around their bodies". The designs take the classic Ranger aesthetic and adds on more sci-fi elements. It makes sense as Zordon is theoretically a space wizard himself, and if the costumes are of his design, some extraterrestrial motifs are to be expected. The color blocking has been moved around, so the famous diamond pattern has been removed, giving way to a chrome ribbing that gives the impression of muscle mass and looks like it could take a hit.

Though the curious part is how their morphers will work. They seem to be embedded into the armor instead of being a separate device. Now, if they morph and the armor materializes around them from the morphers, sort of like how Iron Man's armor works, that would make the most sense. There's no hi-res photos available just yet to get a better look, but visually that might be the best way to go about that. In the first Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers movie, despite the more armored look, the morphers were still external and accessible.

Also, the mysterious glow coming from the center of their chest. Could that be the "power" that gives them their abilities? In the original series, everything rode on the condition of their morphers, so they could access what was called the "Morphing Grid". It's unclear if they'll go down a more sci-fi or fantasy route of how exactly they'll morph in the movie, as well as access their powers exactly, but it won't be long before that will be revealed as well.

Check out when Power Rangers and other movies are coming out in ComicBook.com's Movie Release Schedule.