‘Power Rangers’ feature: From ‘The End of the F***ing World’ team

We just can’t quit the Power Rangers, and it seems like Hollywood can’t either. Despite the crash and burn of Lionsgate’s 2017 Power Rangers reboot, the Japanese children’s show is getting yet another reboot. This time Paramount and Jonathan Entwistle (The End Of The F***ing World) have once again declared “It’s morphin’ time!”

Need a Power Rangers refresher course?

There have been 20 different Power Rangers series. Consider this a broad-strokes breakdown. In every series, a team of teens is recruited and trained to morph into the eponymous Power Rangers. They use special powers and immense assault machines called Zords, to overcome their villains. In the original series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the wizard Zordon recruits “teenagers with attitude” against Rita Repulsa.

The most iconic piece of the Power Rangers is their “morphed” mode. By day, they look like normal teens, but when “morphed” they throw on those color-coded spandex suits we know and love. Anybody could be inside those suits, as their helmets obscure their face, which is important because the original series just pieced together clips from the Japanese show with the American version. 

Morphed Power Rangers have superhuman strength, durability, agility and combat prowess. Sometimes they even have psychic abilities or invisibility. Plus, they each get their own unique weapon. When enemies grow to incredible size (as nearly all do), Rangers use individual Zords that combine into a larger Megazord, and teamwork saves the day.

Why do the Power Rangers keep coming back?

The Power Rangers began as a Japanese live-action television show about teenage superheroes, called Super Sentai (スーパー戦隊シリーズ Sūpā Sentai Shirīzu). It was picked up by Fox and re-named Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1993, and became a huge hit. 

Not including the upcoming release that we’ll discuss in a minute, Power Rangers consists of 26 television seasons of 20 different themed series and three theatrical films released in 1995, 1997 and 2017. It has aired on Fox, Disney, ABC, Nickelodeon, and The CW, and was bought by Hasbro in 2018. Chances are you’ve seen some iteration of Power Rangers, whether you wanted to or not.

Every network has had its eye on Power Rangers for its ridiculous profitability. Between the show’s debut in 1993 and 2001, the media franchise had generated over $6 billion in toy sales. In today’s money, that’s $866,320,689.66. Networks have a long memory for a multi-billion dollar cash cow.

What will be different this time?

In a word: everything. The 2017 Power Rangers reboot was going for a more YA vibe, aiming for broody teens with fond memories of the spandex-clad fighting team. Since that flopped, we expect this to take a different turn.

The word is that Paramount is planning to take the series back to its roots. Word is that their movie will have a time travel element. The newest Power Rangers movie will have modern Power Rangers somehow end up in the 1990s. They will not only need to save the world but also return to the present. 

What does the new team mean for the Power Rangers?

Director Jonathan Entwistle is a surprising choice to bring the Power Ranger franchise back to its roots. Netflix’s The End of the F—ing World is a dark and edgy comedy series, pretty much exactly the opposite of anything Hasbro. 

In addition to season 2 of The End of the F—ing World, Entwistle is currently in post-production on I’m Not Okay With This, another Netflix show he co-created, exec produced and directed. Another YA series, Not Okay focuses on a girl dealing with high school life, her budding sexuality and superpowers.

Patrick Burleigh (Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway) is penning the script for Paramount and Entwistle’s Power Rangers, and the combination of Burleigh and Entwistle feels like it may be an odd match. However, each of them brings experience and success when targeting the younger generation. 

Paramount execs are confident they have found the team that will bring Power Rangers back to its original glory. Personally, we strongly suggest to Burleigh that Rito Revolto makes a comeback too.