Power Rangers will be getting a fresh start thanks to the upcoming live-action series reboot on Disney+, which is being developed by the showrunners of Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians. We don’t know much yet about the series itself and the show’s overall tone and scope, though we do possibly have a few indicators about the show’s direction and cast. With the series in mind, we’re breaking down 7 things that Disney’s reboot must do to revitalize the Power Rangers franchise, and we’re starting with a rather foundational element.
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7. Mighty Morphin Is Fine, Just Remember to Embrace the Fun
At this point, it’s a running joke amongst the Power Rangers fandom that something is going to adapt the Mighty Morphin seasons, and it’s easy to understand why some fans feel that way, but it’s also understandable why Hasbro would go back to what is the most popular era of the show to date. If you’re going to adapt a franchise, you would want to start on the best possible foot, and Mighty Morphin still enjoys a clear presence in fans’ minds.
So, if you are going to adapt Mighty Morphin, that’s perfectly fine, but you also need to embrace the series as a whole and not just one or two elements. The show had big stakes and thrilling fights, but it also had ridiculous Bulk and Skull moments and some truly over-the-top monsters and premises throughout all three seasons. The colors always popped off the screen as well, and those are all fun elements that are as intrinsic to the show as the costumes and floating head in the command center. If you’re going to embrace the show, just remember to embrace everything that made it what it was.
6. Don’t Overthink the Costumes
That brings us to the Mighty Morphin costumes, which are simply iconic, and that’s truly the key here. While I enjoyed the more alien-like designs from the 2017 Power Rangers reboot, I think the recent Ninja Kidz project gave fans a much better idea of how to modernize the designs, but keep what makes them iconic.
If you want to go a bit further back, the costumes from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie were even a bit closer to that balance, though that’s clearly in aesthetic design and not in how they were made, since they were a nightmare for the actors and crew. The designs still feature the iconic diamonds and color schemes with just a touch of armor in the styling and lines. This was even more true of the Ninja Kidz designs, so hopefully the reboot will find some place between these to land when creating their new costumes.
5. The Ground Battles Should Steal The Show
When you think of Power Rangers, it won’t take long before you’re thinking of the Zords and even the Megazord. Those are great, but some of the most thrilling battles in the show are when the Rangers are battling an army of Putties or one of Rita and Zedd’s new monster creations on the ground. This is where you really get to see their individual personalities shine and how they can come together as a team, and it’s also where you see the martial arts aspects shine.
While the Zords and Megazord may get more attention, the Rangers spend a lot of time fighting with their feet firmly on the ground, so these battles need to be highly kinetic and hard-hitting to keep fans’ attention, but also to help keep the budget down so you can make those bigger-than-life scenes really hit.
4. Ditch The Copy and Paste Episodes
Another element of Power Rangers that has been prevalent throughout the franchise’s history is the sort of copy-and-paste nature of how episodes are constructed. Most episodes start with the Rangers discovering a problem and possibly having an unmorphed fight before having a morphed fight, and that paves the way for a giant monster and a switch to the Zords and then the Megazord, which will deliver the finishing move. There are exceptions, obviously, but that’s the persistent formula, and it’s time to shift from that formula and create something new.
This also depends on the length of episodes and how they are formatted in the new reboot, but even if we’re talking about a traditional 30 minute runtime, there’s so much you can do there. The classic format was fine, but if we’re turning the page, let’s actually turn it and shake some things up. Some episodes don’t even need to have a Zord segment or a Megazord ending, while others can be solely focused on the Zords or a huge boss battle. You could have other episodes that mix up the sequence of events or even tell the story through flashback. These are all modern Television elements that can also be part of Power Rangers, as long as the showrunners have the room to actually move things away from the strict episode layout of past episodes.
3. The Team Needs a Flawed Zordon
That shedding of the past leads to our next pick, and the 2017 reboot was already on the right path in this regard. If you’ve read the Power Rangers comics, Zordon is not the infallible leader of the Rangers that he is in the show, and he’s far more interesting as a result. The reboot took a similar approach when it connected Zordon and Rita to a previous team of Power Rangers, but even if you choose not to go that route, the comics have presented an altruistic yet flawed leader who doesn’t always make the right decision.
While the previous version of Zordon was perfect for that era of Power Rangers, having a more conflicted and ultimately relatable leader is a better way to go for this day and age, as it creates more interesting conflicts between Zordon and the Rangers as well as opportunities for character growth on both sides. If you decide to jump into Zordon’s time on Eltar, that’s great too, but even if you don’t, Zordon can be far more than just a way to move the plot forward from A to B, and it starts by making him a truly three dimensional character.
2. A New Level of Rita Repulsa
Speaking of characters getting their due, Rita Repulsa is one of the most beloved characters from the original show, and has continued to be an icon in the movies and the comics. That said, it wasn’t until the comics that fans saw the character reach an entirely new level, and that needs to be brought into live-action.
The comics not only explored Rita’s own childhood her mother fought to keep Rita from following in her father’s footsteps, but it also brought to light several key moments along her path that fans have wanted to see for quite some time, including how she met her allies like Squatt and Baboo. There’s even an additional chapter of the story where Rita ends up reuniting with her father, which brings a whole new side to Rita and her perceptions about her father and her life to this point. Even if you bring 5% of this to the mix in the new series, you will have successfully made one of the most iconic villains ever 10 times better.
1. Plant Seeds For The Bigger Universe
At the start of this I mentioned that embracing Mighty Morphin was perfectly fine, which is a statement that is actually rather divisive amongst longtime Power Rangers fans. There’s a big segment of fans who would love to see the franchise do anything but Mighty Morphin, and with how many times Mighty Morphin has been featured, it’s totally understandable. That said, I don’t have this particular hang-up, but it comes with an asterisk, and it’s one that the reboot should absolutely take into consideration.
If you’re going to run with Mighty Morphin, go ahead, but also don’t let the opportunity of planting the seeds of a much larger universe pass you by. The franchise is filled with amazing characters, teams, and worlds in which to pull from, and if Shattered Grid taught us anything, it’s that the franchise is better when it isn’t relying on just one of those to power everything else.
Mighty Morphin is a great starting place, but don’t hesitate to tease just how powerful the Morphin Grid can be, and how it can possibly even link to teams from across universes and timelines. You could also go the Shattered Dimensions route and have certain teams know about the different dimensions, or utilize the Time Force Rangers to throw in the concept of time travel. Any one of these or a mix of all of them could work, but it’s important to establish that while the focus is on this team of Rangers, the franchise is far more than just these Rangers. The importance of legacy has become one of the quintessential elements of Power Rangers, and if you establish a few of these things during the first season, you can easily build from those and start to fill out the world in cool ways down the line, which will delight longtime fans and keep new fans hooked to see what happens next.
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Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
