From Playmates To ‘Fortnite’, It Looks Like ‘Power Rangers’ Is Finally Moving On From ‘Mighty Morphin’
Despite the specific incarnation of the multi-colored hero team having hung up their Power Coins exactly thirty years ago, a mix of ‘older fans now having disposable income’ and ‘nostalgia being an easy money printing machine’, so has seen the Power Rangers IP ever-focused on its initial Mighty Morphin‘ era, with said team headlining every relevant toy line, comic book, video game, and Netflix special while their 22 successors have meanwhile languished by the way side – but in light of recent updates from both current Power Rangers toy manufacturer Playmates and Fortnite developer Epic Games, it seems the world is finally ready to move from Zordon’s original set of teenagers with attitude.
To the American Super Sentai adaptation’s credit, years past did see the franchise making a genuine play at emulating its 0source material’s ‘anthology’ spirit, as past owners Saban Entertainment and Disney both treated each new team with as much reverence and merchandising importance as their predecessors.
While no such admission has ever been made by an official source, it seems the turning point for this approach came in 2016, courtesy of BOOM! Studios’ first Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers comic book relaunch, its initial run helmed by writers Kyle Higgins and Ryan Parrott and featuring such notable artists as Hendry Prasetya (TMNT x Naruto Vol. 1), Simone Di Meo (X-Men of Apocalypse Vol. 1), Daniele Di Nicuolo (DC vs. Vampires Vol. 1), Jonas Scharf (Ultimate Endgame Vol. 1) and Dan Mora (Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2)
Thanks to the BOOM! Studios crew and their Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1-style ‘modern refresh’, which itself notably included the introduction of such new franchise concepts as Black Dragon and Lord Drakkon, the Mighty Morphin’ team suddenly found themselves once again enjoying the pop-culture spotlight.
Far from an overnight switch in philosophy, the franchise would continue to pay proper due to its wide array of Rangers up until 2019, with the March seeing the release of Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, a three-on-three fighter whose roster spans across the Morphin’ Grid from Zeo, to Mystic Force, to even to Lionsgate’s 2017 live-action film and the aforementioned BOOM! Studios series (not to mention Capcom’s Street Fighter, whose star duo of Ryu and Chun-Li appear as special guests).
Rather, the path to Power Rangers‘ oncoming Mighty Morphin’ obsession would begin the year prior, with May 2018 seeing Saban Entertainment agreeing to sell the entirety of the IP to Hasbro, the deal ultimately being finalized a few months later on July 2nd.
The release of Battle for the Grid freeing them from the last of franchise’s Saban-led commitments, Hasbro, ostensibly driven by the success of BOOM! Studios’ reboot, then proceeded to go all in on the Mighty Morphin’ merchandising.
In terms of toys, Hasbro not only launched their own Lightning Collection line, its roster expanding slightly past the show’s first three seasons but still overwhelmingly focused on them, but also began to sublicense the brand to other manufacturers like Diamond, Funko!, and Threezero, all of which opted to focus their efforts solely on Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Trini, Billy, and Tommy.
With regards to comics, the Hasbro deal saw the ink dry on numerous crossover with Godzilla, Usagi Yojimbo, and even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all of whom – you guessed it – went up against Angel Grove’s finest, all while the mainline BOOM! offerings continued to likewise revolve around the core group.
Though their video game adventures have been less impressive overall post-Battle for the Grid, the team has still received an overwhelming amount of digital attention in the form of two mobile games, Power Rangers Morphin Legends and Power Rangers Might Force, the side-scrolling beat ’em up Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind, and a collaboration with the aforementioned Fortnite, which brought the core six, Tommy’s White Ranger form, the Megazord, and Lord Zedd to the game.
Hell, they even managed to shoehorn both Billy and Zack into the Once & Always Netflix special, with the re-introduced Billy even going on to serve as a lead character in the show’s final season, Cosmic Fury.
Thankfully, it seems that the franchise is finally, finally ready to break out of its ’90s kids’ obsession and start giving genuine love to later Power Rangers seasons.
The first hint to this change came via the recent Toy Fair 2027, whereat Playmates, who recently acquired the Power Rangers toy license from Hasbro in 2024, unveiled their next set of Re-Ignition toys, which in following their originally announced plan will move on from Mighty Morphin’ Season One and instead tackle Season Two’s new lore additions.
New releases include figures for the Red, Black, and Yellow Ranger successors Rocky, Adam, and Aisha, the villainous Lord Zedd, and the Thunderzords/ Thunder Megazord, with a White Ranger, a Tigerzord, and replicas of his Saba Sword and mask set to be announced at a later date.
Interestingly, said ‘Mighty Morphin’ fatigue’ seems to have affected PlayMates’ production plans.
According to YouTuber Long’s Toys, when asked on the show floor as to “why we never got the Dragonzord”, a Playmates rep purportedly told him “For Dragonzord, no retail wanted to step up and take the exclusive”.
“It’s possible it could still happen but it would most likely be an online exclusive somewhere if it did,” the rep added. “For White Ranger, it will be an exclusive at Walmart first just like Green, probably around July, then everywhere else come the fall and this time they want the white Tigerzord as well.”
Next up was Epic Games, who today unveiled that their Fortnite x Power Rangers collaboration would receive another pair of skins in the form of the Tommy and Trent Fernandez-Mercer’s Dino Thunder respective identities as the White and Black Dino Ranger.
While BOOM! Studios’ current Power Rangers Prime, which was admittedly hit-or-miss in its execution but was at least doing something different, is coming to an end in favor of yet another Mighty Morphin’ reboot and Disney’s live-action efforts are unsurprisingly focused on the team’s most ‘well-known’ incarnation, that the existence of the Thunderzords and Dino Thunder are being publicly acknowledged in any way is a genuinely positive sign for the franchise’s future.
(Now here’s hoping Zeo or Space get their time to shine as well…)
