Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie Is A Go-Go With Lionsgate

By Nick Venable | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

power rangersSo you say that not enough costume-filled, martial arts-inspired children’s TV shows are getting remade into movies? Well, nobody asked you! But this news is bound to please someone, somewhere, somehow. Lionsgate has announced a future team-up with Haim Saban’s Saban Brands to build a film franchise out of the hugely popular 1990s series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. This is the part of the story where I throw the microphone stand down and walk off the stage in a blaze of glory.

Unlike Paramount’s approach to rebuilding a brand out of that other beloved children’s franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Legendary doesn’t have any droll concepts for how to make the Rangers more modern; they’re sticking to the basics, at least for now. According to Deadline, this reboot will focus on an all-new group of high school teens whose lives are thrown into chaos once they have to team up and save the world…from themselves. Just kidding.

It’s probably going to involve CGI monsters, or if they’re really looking to mirror the show’s heyday, we may be seeing the return of the dreaded Rita Repulsa. The world is not spinning at full capacity without this crazy bitch causing trouble.

rita repulsa power rangers

Just to get into some background info here. The Power Rangers were color-based heroes given vague superpowers by aliens, which allows them to transform into costumed heroes and ride into battle inside giant robots called “Zords.” The production of the first iteration of the franchise was nearly as ridiculous as everything that went on in the show. The Rangers footage was mixed in with footage from different Japanese action shows, creating a low-budget, merchandise-spewing money pit.

You might recall that a feature version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers already went to theaters. In 1995 it grossed around $64 million worldwide on a $15 million budget. It’s rather hard to believe that it wasn’t followed by a dozen other features. Maybe it’s because it looked like this.

One has to wonder if anybody has shared this news with Jason David Frank, most popularly known as Tommy, the Green Ranger. Last year, he was talking about trying to self-propel a Green Ranger movie to meet up with fan expectations that all movies should be about the Green Ranger. Nothing has really come of that, obviously, and I wonder if Legendary will look to the actor to play one of the teachers in the high school the new Rangers are attending.

Everybody turn into a giant robot internet commenter and tell us what you think about this reboot.