After 25 years and counting, the Power Rangers still remain relevant in an already-saturated superhero market thanks to its loyal (and largely millennial) fanbase. Despite the mixed success of the 2017 reboot, which abandoned the original series' zany spirit for a more serious tone, Hasbro continues to see the potential in the franchise and is hoping to revive it with its very own shared universe.
According to We Got This Covered, the next Power Rangers film will be a time-traveling epic that takes the colorfully-suited teens back in time to 20 years ago, capitalizing on 1990s nostalgia and removing itself from any connection to the last reboot. With that in mind, the new reboot will undoubtedly go back to its cheery and campy roots, and it may feature cameo appearances of past iterations of the Rangers from the television show's three-decade run; a feat that is only possible with the time-travel element.
The colossal task of creating the new Power Rangers shared universe has been assigned to Jonathan Entwistle, the writer, and director of Netflix's I Am Not Okay With This, and Bryan Edward Hill, who formerly wrote HBO Max's Titans. The two will be responsible for injecting some much-needed life into the new initiatives, which are said to include projects for both movies and television. With Hasbro's acquisition of Entertainment One, this Power Rangers project is set to be one of the studio's biggest upcoming projects. However, with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the recent announcement that Entwistle will now be taking on Disney Plus' Willow sequel, it is unlikely that the project will gain any traction at any time in the near future.
Fans are hopeful that a light-hearted reboot will be more successful in garnering the interest of the masses. If Entwistle executes this properly, the next Power Rangers film could have the potential to deliver the same fun and amusement as other time-traveling hits such as Back to the Future and Edge of Tomorrow.
Perhaps the failure of Dean Israelite's 2017 Power Rangers was due to the absence of the lighthearted joy that fans are most familiar with. Initially, there were plans to make at least four sequels based on Israelite's version, but after a swath of mediocre reviews and a poor box office run, it didn't even manage to secure one. On the bright side, the film did manage to turn a profit on merchandise sales, which prompted Hasbro to buy the entire brand in the first place.
Entwistle's Power Rangers is in development at Entertainment One.
Source: We Got This Covered