Netflix Power Rangers Series Cancelled
 

https://tvline.com/news/power-ranger...op-1235260980/

I'm a bit unclear from the phrasing if this means that Entwistle and eOne are no longer involved or just Netflix.

I think it's a bit of both since eOne was sold to Lionsgate about a year ago but Hasbro still has the rights to the IP. I guess they will look for another platform to have this project on like Amazon Prime or Apple TV+ (of course, non-streaming platforms could be potential candidates now too) as well as review and decide whether or not they want to continue with the direction they originally planned. Judging by the recent downsizing Hasbro has been doing though, I'm not sure if they could even go with the MCU approach of world-building let alone a live-action show at the moment.

How the hell is Power Rangers becoming such a hard franchise to manage?!

I'm guessing lack of general interest after the 2010s remake/reboot craze died down in the 2020s and Hasbro is not doing so hot as a company right now unfortunately, judging by its downsizing. They won't make the toys themselves anymore as demonstrated in the recent Playmates deal where Playmates will be making the toys instead while Hasbro holds onto the IP.

Hasbro sucks and should lose all their money

I don't want to make this a general assumption, but I want to say the fandom just had enough of Mighty Morphin' and getting nothing but the Mighty Morphin' era. Be it in the show, the comics, the games, the official toys and even 3rd party toys are offering nothing beyond that one era and leaving every other era ignored or receiving lack of attention. Did recent seasons even had the same attention and marketing as Mighty Morphin'? Not only do I hear the toys are extremely low quality, even for Power Rangers originals divorced from the Sentai source material, but some characters and Zords didn't even get any toys based on them despite running a franchise made to sell said toys! I don't think incompetence is enough to describe this situation.

I think it's the opposite - people are seemingly more interested in Mighty Morphin era but not so much the endless supply of new teams based on Sentai, as evidenced by how popular the comics and stuff are. I think they're trying to re-think their approach to Power Rangers but aren't quite sure what the answer is yet.

I've said this elsewhere, but I think they should handle a reboot similar to how Star Trek's reboot was handled - they should make a new show with a new team, a nostalgic return to old characters and storylines, maybe some spin-offs, and an adaptation of the most popular comic stories.

This is actually not true.

The people who claim that everyone is sick of MMPR and that it's been killing the franchise are a very loud minority.

This is evidenced by how well sales and attention towards MMPR-related projects have been over the years. The comics? Consistently praised despite most of them being MMPR focused. Even the Kickstarter for "The Return" surpassed its goal in less than an hour.

There's also "Once & Always" which was made for the 30th Anniversary and was met with near universal praise even on these very boards. To the point that people were hoping it'd be a recurring thing for the franchise.

Heck, as mixed of a reception as the 2017 Reboot got, its blu-ray sales still did incredibly well. Like it or not, MMPR is what sells the most in this franchise, hence why it gets the most attention. It's like the 80s version of the TMNT that way. Despite any new shows or movies we might get, 80% of the merchandising will be geared towards the old 80s cartoon.

I also have to disagree with the sentiment that we've been getting "nothing but" MMPR over the last decade. The comics have had their oneshots focusing on other seasons. The games grabbed characters from all across the franchise(and the mobile game is still ongoing). And despite the shared theme of dinosaurs, anyone who tries to claim that Dino Fury and MMPR are the same have frankly never watched either show.

The franchise's' suffering is 1000% the fault of mismanagement on Hasbro. Fact is that the company at large never wanted nor knew what to do with the property, and thus are content with doing nothing with it.

Just like Disney was when they had it

MMPR is inarguably the most popular but pointing to the comics which struggles to top any sales figures charts is pure cope. Never mind the fact the American comic book industry is routinely outsold by singular manga series from Japan.

The franchise has been mismanaged for years. The license owners don't know what to do with it and creatives working on it were apathetic at best and resentful at worst.

Maybe Once and Always was the blueprint for what they should do? I don't actually know. "Praise" is nice and all (the comics supposedly have this too) but that doesn't translate into viewers or sales. If PR had either they'd have a new tv show or toyline.

The point is not that these things sell amazing well *in general* but rather that they do well with both the fanbase and their intended audiences.

Is Power Rangers ever gonna top the average MCU film? No. But it still has alot of staying power in plenty of circles. Most importantly the target audience of young kids. With every season having got high ratings on Netflix ever since that deal was made. Cosmic Fury included.

And again, "The Return" met its goal in less than an hour. Whether or not it sold better than something like, say, Chainsaw Man is irrelevant. It's the fact of the matter that it sold well at all.

I find this unsurprising, but depressing.

Dino Fury and Cosmic Fury were intended to be mere stopgaps as the Entwistle Reboot was stuck in development hell, but Hasbro bet too high and rolled snake eyes.

There are four IMMEDIATE possibilities in my head at the moment:

1): Animated anthology show similar to Marvel's recent "What If", but set within established continuity. This would be semi-appropriate given how Sentai's "competitor" Ultraman is getting a new animated special...on Netflix! Irony!

2): Continue adapting Kyuranger WITH the series-appropriate suits! Worried about "Too Many Rangers"? Call the whole thing "Cosmic Legends" and make it a team of Veteran Rangers who we already know about. Similar to BOOM's Solar Rangers from "Beyond The Grid".

3): Follow-up to the 2017 Reboot Movie. Scenes set in the past after the defeat of Rita can be used to set the stage before the obvious time skip.

4): Sell Away!

Issues abound with any of this options, but the first three would do what Dino Fury and Cosmic Fury were originally intended for: Keep interest in the franchise alive by giving everyone something to focus on!

5) Adapt King-Ohger minus the whole fit a square peg into a round hole by adding mecha from other sentai shows, because three times is enough.

There's more news happening!
https://x.com/Jinsakuu/status/1800947706002604199
https://x.com/jinsakuu/status/180106...leMHJHQ_xcBLbA

TLDR; Hasbro didn't want the Franchise. Didn't want to spend money on it. They didn't do what they promised to Netflix, and Netflix backed out. Now they're supposedly selling it next year.

More
https://x.com/LivingRangerKey/status...ad34wBI7w&s=19
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1718256685

This is from a few days ago, so while still new, it's a tad behind and what was leaked right after the announcement.

If Hasbro is planning on selling, I'm curious to see who it's going to go to, or if Bandai America is just going to get it back

Man, remember when Hasbro getting Power Rangers was treated as a good thing? What youthful optimism we once had.

If it's true that Hasbro is going to sell off the entire property next year, I gotta wonder what the logic behind giving all of the toy rights to Playmates was.

The most disappointing thing for me is that this probably means the end of the Renegade board game, since the company has become so connected to Hasbro recently. Maybe they’ll let them keep the board game rights, but I’m not exactly optimistic about that.

That second collector’s box is going to remain sad and empty forever!

Well, I'm at a loss for words.

6 Years! The news broke that Hasbro would obtain the franchise back in 2018.

It's taken 6 years to realize an "ugly truth"....this was never supposed to happen and the whole thing was a farce from the word "GO"!

I don't know what this is. Words like "sickening" and "shocking" don't feel entirely appropriate, but that's all I can come up with right now.

The fabled "Transformers VS. Power Rangers" Crossover....Will we ever see you!?

PR's identity as a Tokusatsu is what made it stand out to me when I was a kid, compared to its many cartoon contemporaries.

Master Zedd destroyed all the Zords from Q1 Kyuranger, so there'd be limited footage for giant battles. I would like to see Phoenix Soldier adapted in some way though. Maybe as a prequel, then you can have all the Zords.

The post-credits Tommy scene had me excited for a sequel, but sadly I worry that it's been too long now and all the momentum for that movie has faded. Zack's actor is already in his mid-late 30s. It's a shame we never got to see Lord Zedd, Rito Revolto and Master Vile in that continuity.

Yep, that seems likely at this point. I didn't notice so much in 2010 since I'd been getting deep in Sentai and Rider, but now, it's going to feel so weird not having any PR in 2024 and perhaps for the foreseeable future. The IP desperately needs new management who will take it and the fans seriously, not just focusing on cheap and safe stuff like an archaic MMPR sidescroller.

With all the CGI, it would have to be mostly original footage like Cosmic Fury. I think Zenkaiger would be more plausible for adaption.

Damn, that sucks. If Hasbro weren't fully committed to delivering on that promise, then they shouldn't have made it. So unprofessional!

At least the merchandise was higher quality.

So, they WERE fully committed to delivering... then the guy running Hasbro that wanted to do it died. And his replacement cares more about Transformers and ruining Magic than he does Power Rangers.

Toei has consistently stopped any kind of animated projects from the American side and I doubt Hasbro got that changed.

I fear Power Rangers is about to go RIP and we have no inspiring heroes & heroines to look up to.

Marvel & DC heroes are a bore.

Gen Z REALLY needs help.

I'd much rather see a G.I.Joe and Beyblade crossover than them forcefully producing stuff they don't even want to touch with a 10-foot pole. Seriously, this is infuriating to see. And at this point I feel sorry for the fans of Power Rangers specifically because I feel like their time has been wasted for the past 6 years whether the stuff that came out did well or loved by fans.

Yea, for like, five years. Then the previous CEO died in 2022, and the QC jumped off. Hard.

Yea, he was fully committed to trying to make it work. Like when he was around, I was thinking Hasbro could do it. But then when he died, it became very clear that the only person who cared about Power Rangers was him, and that's when it all collapsed.

Since the state of the franchise is once again put into question, I want to pose this question: Do we need Power Rangers?

Personally, while I do acknowledge the franchise playing a part in introducing me to toku, I have zero reason to ever go back to it now that I am watching Sentai and I suspect I'm not the only one.

More over as the years have gone by, the origins of the franchise being an adaptation of Sentai has proven to be the big elephant in the room about its creation. Not only is it something that you just can't do in this day and age, but it also makes it an anomaly of a property to handle in comparison to other american media franchises, which is why all the companies that had the PR license have no idea what to do with it.

I don't want to say I'm happy about the current state of PR, but I can't help but see its current trajectory going the Robotech route of "Why do we need this when we could just get Sentai instead"

I want to answer this as simply as I can. Yes. Yes we still do. PR is the gateway for new generations to get into Toku. Even if parents aren't as strict about internet access these days. Power Rangers is usually the first thing most kids come into contact with when it comes to Tokusatsu. And I feel like without it, future generations may not get into Tokusatsu as much. Unless, that is, TOEI decides to take a more active role in spreading SS and KR into the west.

Does Toei really need this? Tsuburaya is promoting Ultraman to the West, and everyone who is seriously interested in him will sooner or later come to Rider and Sentai. Why spend money, share profits and take risks when you can get the same result without doing anything?
The main problem of PR: copying is pointless, doing your own is unprofitable. And until that changes, the franchise is doomed to suffer.

It's still a large hole in the market that relies entirely on their direct competitor sparking enough interest.
While Sentai and KR is easier to access now that it's officially streamed, what's being streamed are older seasons with no merch to back it up.
The Henshin Hero genre is ride or die on toy sales, so residuals from DVDs or ads on streaming are nothing compared to getting people to buy the mechs.

If a company in the US isn't going to market Power Rangers, Toei should at least make a marketing push for their Sentai subs.

To add onto this, the question in itself is a loaded one. It'd be like asking "Do we really need official subs for Toku shows? Fansubs exist afterall!"

But even ignoring all that, why should fans of Power Rangers(hi, we exist!) have to go without simply because it's based on something else? Or should the US Godzilla films stop getting made because Godzilla's a Japanese property?

People often forget that not only is PR based on Sentai, but Sentai continuously grows thanks to ideas it gets from Power Rangers. They work in unison, not against eachother. And simply killing Power Rangers off not only means a smaller fanbase overall, but less creativity coming in for the market.

People still like Power Rangers. Talking down to them about the whole situation does nothing.

You're going to have to give me examples of that later point cause I've never heard this being the case. Like sure, sometimes some ideas might be similar, and sometimes they might directly take something like the SPD battlelizer, but otherwise I don't think Toei or any of the creative teams on Sentai cares about what happens in Power Rangers.

And to address the Godzilla comparison, the US Godzilla films are still at least wholly original, whereas Power Rangers to this day still takes and bases its footage around Sentai. It's literally within the DNA of the franchise and every attempt to move away from it hasn't worked. Sentai can exist without Power Rangers, Power Rangers can't exist without Sentai.

I'm not saying people can't like Power Rangers. I just don't think the franchise has any shelf life in the current media landscape.

Koichi Sakamoto built his entire career off of Power Rangers, only becoming a prominent director thanks to his time with Saban and Disney. He even went so far as to include Power Rangers references in the episodes of Gokaiger that he directed.

There's also Zenkaiger, wherein we can thank Juran's' entire existence to PR; Mighty Morphin' specifically. Those are just the two examples that jump to the front of my brain.

Toei does infact care about a property that serves as a direct representation of one of their most prolific franchises.

How unfortunate, I wasn't aware he was so influential in PR's improvement. It's tragic enough that he died, but even worse that his vision died with him. R.I.P.

Gobusters' Morphin' Brace says, "It's Morphin' Time!" and their enemy is a computer virus like Venjix.

Zyuoh The World is a normal human who was brainwashed in to a villain before redeeming himself like Tommy.

Kyuranger is set in a dystopian future alternate dimension conquered by the villains like RPM and the main villain is a spirit that corrupts the host like Dai Shi.

Lupinranger and Patranger have powers from the same source like how Ninjor created the Power Coins for Mighty Morphin' and Alien.

Strongest Battle is set on Planet Nemesis and the villain is called Rita.

Kirama Silver arrived on Earth from Crystalia (although originally from Earth) like how Orion came from Andresia.

Sempaiger are a group of 10 Red Rangers who fought the remnants of a defeated villain faction like in Forever Red.

Kuwagata-Ohger and Ohkuwagata-Ohger are long-lost brothers with one of them having memory loss like the relationship between Brody and Levi.

Akibaranger had the Powerful Rangers.

To add to what DreamSword said, not only is Zenkai Juran based on Zyuranger, but also Super Zenkaizer. I know Zyuranger was popular for its time, but this seems way too deliberate to not be a Mighty Morphin' reference.

To be fair, a lot of those examples are just similarities in 2 long running franchises.
To say something like a brainwashed villain becomes a hero or an amnesiac reunites with their long lost sibling is a PR homage is a massive stretch.

That's not to say some aren't honest to goodness PR references (It's Morphin Time and the mech system being called Megazords in Go-Busters, Zyuran's entire existence, and the Powerful Rangers), but a lot of those are just circumstantial similarities.

Also, losing the Western market would be a massive fumble for Toei

Yeah, a number of those are just cute references/nods, or just coincidentally similar ideas. If we're talking about Sentai being creatively inspired or influenced by Power Rangers, I really can't think of a single noteworthy example.

I would argue that the prevalence of the sixth ranger archetype exists almost entirely because of Power Rangers. The Green Ranger was immensely popular, and Dragon Ranger was the FIRST sixth ranger, at least the first to actually stick around for more than one episode.

Zyuranger is obviously still the basis for the concept, but you can see there was still some hesitancy to the concept through Kakuranger and Carranger, which didn't really have proper sixth rangers. This also happened during the time where Power Rangers and Sentai were airing alongside each other, so it's highly likely that this was a massive factor in sixth rangers continuing to be a thing, and reaching the level of marketing that they have today.

Power Rangers has also definitely affected anniversary seasons due to how the two franchises have lined up, even up to Zenkaiger. Gaoranger's anniversary tribute was a movie, Boukenger limited its references to the monster designs, Gokaiger was only originally going to have anniversary episodes for the series that had mechs based on them, which were all ones that got adapted into Power Rangers, and the only Zenkaiger member not based on a Power Rangers adapted series was Zenkaiser.

I know it's silly to say that Gokaiger made steps to ensure that it could be adapted into Power Rangers considering how it went, but I really doubt that they would have expected it to go like it actually did.

I think Power Rangers has had a marked impact on Sentai from a production level, if not a story one. Power Rangers being made is the exact point where Sentai stopped being able to make things like Jetman, where it shifted to more generally family friendly material. Some people probably don't consider that a good thing, but its definitely something that has worked out business-wise.

If Hasbro sells the franchise, who is most likely to buy it?