The Power Rangers franchise has been featured in just about every way possible over the years, with numerous television shows, films, toylines, comics, graphic novels, video games, board games, and collectibles under the franchise umbrella at this point. There is one format, however, that has never been part of the franchise despite fans voicing their hopes for it for years, and that’s the realm of animation. It turns out though that someone on the inside was pushing for an anime series, and now Melissa Flores has revealed all the details on what happened and why that series never happened.
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In an interview with PwrRngr, former Power Rangers Brand Director of Content and Development Melissa Flores revealed she went to bat for a Power Rangers animated series, which would have leaned heavily into anime and manga. “I pitched so hard when I was an executive, an anime version of Power Rangers. Animated, but like anime, manga, really like anime hardcore. I thought the medium lent itself really well to it,” Flores said.
“The action scenes, everything. I think we hit a really beautiful formula with the BOOM! comic books in which you could tell a family-friendly story but with a more adult focus, or actually real stakes, real character development, and I really wanted that. And I just, I never was able to take it across the plate.”
Why Did Power Rangers Never Go Animated?
Fans have been wanting an animated Power Rangers series for what feels like a lifetime, and the brand has even teased this finally happening at different times in the past. Despite those efforts, nothing has ever materialized, and Flores knows part of that is tied to the show’s live-action roots.
“So being able to do something like that would be great. I understand though that what makes Power Rangers special, and what felt special about it at the time is the live action components, but I feel like in order to evolve the brand, it would have been something very cool, as a brand building tool that would allow us to do something a little different, like what we did with the comic books or like HyperForce or the video games,” Flores said.
As we’ve seen over the past decade, animation can encompass any age range and any genre, and a host of animated projects find a way to appeal to several of those demographics and fandoms all at once. The Spider-Verse franchise, Bojack Horseman, South Park, Inside Out, The Simpsons, Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends, Batman: Caped Crusader, Invincible, Family Guy, Toy Story, and KPop Demon Hunters all immediately come to mind, and those projects alone are quite expansive in terms of which audiences and age ranges they reach.
Power Rangers could easily be another prime example of that, but the series has never made the full jump to animation, and that has always felt like a massive oversight for the franchise.
“We tend to find a lot of success in those buckets because I think the fans really enjoy being taken seriously, at least the older fans, in which they feel like it’s something they can really invest in,” Flores said. “As much as they love the live-action series, it’s always, it’s never for them, it’s for the kids. So I really enjoyed creating content that was for them as well, while also keeping it kid-friendly as well so that a kid could open up the book and not be scarred for life.”
When Hasbro purchased the franchise, it felt like a Power Rangers animated series was only a matter of time. That’s not turned out to be the case, but with a new live-action series in development and early plans for a new movie, perhaps this will finally be the time when Power Rangers takes the leap of faith into animation it should have taken years ago.
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