Power Rangers' Canceled Seven-Movie Plan Makes 2017 Reboot's Failure Even More Heartbreaking

Power Rangers (2017) was supposed to lead to multiple sequels, which makes the reboot's failure all the more disappointing. Power Rangers has a complicated history with theatrical films. The franchise's first attempt to turn the TV phenomenon into a box office success was in 1995. with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. While the year 1995 Power Rangers The film has since become a classic thanks to TV reruns and VHS, but it didn't do exceptionally well when it was released. Two years later, Power Rangers got a second film, this time with a much smaller budget and a more limited release.

Interestingly, 1997 Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is the only canonical film in the franchise and functions as “episode 0” of Power Rangers Turbo. It took 20 years to Power Rangers to get another movie, with Power Rangers (2017) promising a darker and more mature vision of the world of Powerful Morphine. With a large cast of promising actors and many new ideas, Power Rangers (2017) had the potential to start a franchise that could have reinvented the Zordon Era into a series of films. Unfortunately, this Power Rangers cinematic universe never existed.

Power Rangers (2017) was supposed to be the start of a new franchise

Lionsgate had hopes for “five, six or seven” Power Rangers films

In a conference call before the film's 2017 release, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said the studio was “very, very excited” on Power Rangersand what they could end up doing “five, or six, or seven” (through Variety). Although there has never been much discussion about what Power Rangers As the sequels would turn out, the studio clearly believed in the IP's potential and saw the 2017 reboot as the start of a franchise. Unfortunately, Power Rangers bombed at the box office, and this new film series based on Powerful Morphine it was dead before it even started.

Made with a budget of US$100 million, Power Rangers it grossed just US$142 million at the worldwide box office. Considering that films generally need to gross 2.5 times their production budget to break even, it's unclear whether the 2017 film Power Rangers restarting even made a profit. THE Power Rangers the brand was sold to Hasbro about a year later, and if a new Power Rangers If the film happens, it won't be a sequel to the 2017 reboot. Power Rangers'The box office failure ended any chance of starting a multi-film franchise.

Power Rangers' seven-movie plan would have created a massive cinematic universe

Power Rangers lore is rich enough to support multiple sequels

Power Rangers failing at the box office is even more disappointing considering how great a cinematic universe based on these characters would have been. While the Power Rangers The TV show was primarily aimed at children, the franchise has established an impressive lore over 30 years, consisting of countless heroes, villains, locations, and more. Power Rangers Could have been a really fun movie franchise even if it was based Powerful Morphine just. BOOM! The studios' comics are a great example of this, having modernized Power Rangers maintaining the essence of the TV show.

The 2017 film was much more mature Power Rangers story and found time to develop each character while playing with the TV show's lore. From Zordon and Rita being former Power Rangers to the Zeo Crystals being associated with life on Earth, Power Rangers (2017) had a lot of interesting ideas that could have been explored in sequels. The introduction of the Green Ranger and the arrival of Lord Zedd are just a few examples of stories that could have been covered in sequels, not to mention all the others. Power Rangers teams from the same era.

What Power Rangers sequels based on the show would look like

Power Rangers 2 would likely be based on “Green With Evil”

Although this seven film Power Rangers saga never happened, it's fun to imagine what it would be like. Power Rangers'planned sequels could have stretched the Powerful Morphine story across seven films – similar to what the comics did – or moved to other times in the series, such as Zeo and Turbo. Assuming they would like to keep Powerful Morphine as long as possible, sequels would likely have reinvented arcs like “Green With Evil” and “The Mutiny” while also telling new stories within that sandbox.

Power Rangers 2 would certainly feature the Green Ranger, especially since the 2017 film's post-credits scene teased the arrival of Tommy Oliver. It would have been nice to see Tommy Oliver's full story told across multiple films, with the character going from an evil Ranger to leader of the Power Rangers. Hopefully, Power Rangers will someday return to the big screen, even with yet another reimagining of Mighty Morphin.

Source: Variety