The Power Rangers franchise is now in the works on a new reboot series for Disney+, and Hasbro should really take this opportunity to start off with something brand new in order to avoid the mistakes of the past. The Power Rangers franchise lasted for 30 years worth of television shows, video games, comics, feature films and more, and seemingly ended its run for good with the release of Power Rangers Cosmic Fury on Netflix back in 2023. But you can’t keep this franchise down as a new take on the series is already in the works for a new rebooted era.
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Hasbro and 20th Century TV are reportedly now working on a new Power Rangers series for Disney+ with Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz, who are currently working on the Percy Jackson and the Olympiansย series for Disney+, to serve as showrunners and executive producers that will be a “reinvention” of the classic franchise. The best way to do and to keep both older and newer fans of the series happy is to just start with a clean break and tackle a brand new version of the franchise never seen before.
Power Rangers Is Built on Reboots
At its core, Power Rangers is a franchise that’s build on rebooting itself. Not only was the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series a reboot of the Super Sentai series, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, with new edited footage added for the American version of the show, but the franchise itself was reinvented each year. Although Mighty Morphin Power Rangers originally ran for three full seasons, there were a number of key cast changes and power changes to coincide with all of the new footage from other Super Sentai shows that were tossed in to keep it going. Power Rangers might have been set within a single timeline at first, but this changed over the many seasons.
Power Rangers fans should be used to reboots at this point, so the idea of a brand new one isn’t that wild of a premise. Although Power Rangers chose its ideas based on whatever Super Sentai series that Toei produced in Japan shortly before, it was still a show that reinvented itself with each season. It even got to the point that each new season was basically an entirely new series with a new cast, new premise, new timelines, powers, and much more. It was just something we all accepted without issue. But somewhere along the line, the idea of rebooting the series became an issue with dedicated fans.
For whatever reason, Power Rangers fans started fighting back against the idea of the series changing up or ignoring much of what Toei’s Super Sentai franchise had produced. Although the two franchises are completely different, there was a desire to keep many of the elements the same despite the two very different purposes. Even when a Power Rangers show was completely new, like Cosmic Fury, there was a lot of heat online over the fact that it was taking elements from a different show it had ignored (which Power Rangers has been doing from the very beginning). For whatever reason, now rebooting the series is an issue.
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Just Start Brand New With Power Rangers
In that case, it’s best to just start brand new with Power Rangers’ new Disney+ series. As fans have gotten to see through the various comic book releases, Power Rangers can do a lot more than what fans might think it’s capable of. The reliance on Toei’s Super Sentai material was not only a crutch for creativity, but also became one of its biggest hassles as more of the fanbase wanted to see that original Japanese material adapted for the new version. To avoid that hassle with this new reboot, it’s best to just start at the beginning.
It doesn’t mean start with a new version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (which is likely what is going to happen given that it’s basically the only version of the series that broke through the general pop culture sphere), it means start out with something that has never been seen before. There are already going to be a lot of expectations working against this new series, so it’s best to meet those challenges head on with a new version of the franchise that will get to have its own story.
To further separate this new TV series from the also apparently in the works Power Rangers movie reboot, this should be a brand new story with its own characters, villains, powers and much more. It will force even the most dedicated fans to judge this new Power Rangers on its own merits as a Power Rangers series, and has the potential to even change what we think Power Rangers is. If this wants the best chance it could have at success, a fresh start free from anything potentially holding it back is the way to go.
What do you want to see in a new Power Rangers reboot series? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!
