Hasbro has big plans for its newly purchased Power Rangers brand, including a new movie, but when they say a “follow-up,” what do they really mean?
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That’s the question du jour at the moment, and we’re all quite curious. For starters, here’s the original text from the Licensing.org article.
“Power Rangers’ will generate an operating profit similar to Hasbro‘s other franchise brands and has a significant opportunity for growth given where the brand had been most recently,” said Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner. “Hasbro will work with a film studio to develop a new Power Rangers movie as a follow-up to the 2017 release.”
That word follow-up is a bit mysterious. On the one hand, it does say “follow-up to the 2017 release,” but Hasbro is careful not to flat out say sequel, which would’ve answered all of these questions in one fell swoop. Since it wasn’t said outright, we could assume it is a sequel, but it could also mean they are referring to the brand in general.
Whether you liked it or not, so Hasbro is likely going to acknowledge the movie when they talk about the brand of Power Rangers as a whole. In that sense, a new movie would be technically a follow-up, but that doesn’t mean it’s a sequel. Hasbro seems keen on acknowledging the vast amount of Power Rangers history, but they also likely want to put their own spin on the franchise, and rebooting it fully with a new cast and overall design would be the most surefire way to do that.
There’s also some middle ground here that remains a possibility. The previous Power Rangers film didn’t connect with the audience it most needed to: children. For the most part, fans of the franchise embraced it, but the younger mainstream audience outside the Power Rangers loop did not, and that’s something Hasbro hasn’t had an issue with when it comes to their Transformers franchise.
That said, there’s still plenty to love about the reboot, including the amazing cast and characters they brought to life. Hasbro could always bring in as many of the cast as possible, recasting only when necessary, and could keep the majority of the lore intact, e.g. Zordon’s history, Rita Repulsa’s Green Ranger, etc.
Of course, that could be confusing to navigate, but nevertheless, it is an option.
Right now, it is too early to say that we are in fact getting a true sequel, especially since the cast has moved on to other things since that filmwas released. It is also too early to rule it out, which brings us back to where we started.
We haven’t reached a true conclusion here, but more than anything we just wanted to brace you that a “follow-up” might not be exactly what you think — but like all fans, we certainly have our fingers crossed.
