In offering a small ray of hope amidst the Super Sentai adaptation’s continued mismanagement, Hasbro and Netflix’s young adult reboot of the Power Rangers franchise has officially been cut off from the Morphing Grid.
First announced as in development all the way back in 2019, the reboot was set to be penned by the creator of The End of the F–king television adaptation Jonathan Entwistle and to serve as the first entry in a brand new ‘Power Rangers cinematic universe’.
And that was the last true, official update that the series ever received.
In the five years since its announcement, only a single official ‘update’ (if it can be called that) was ever offered regarding its production status, with Hasbro Chief Financial Officer Deb Thomas assuring investors during the company’s Q4 2022 earnings call that the project was currently receiving “continued development”.
However, rather than being a sign of Hasbro and Entwistle being hard at work, it appears that this near-radio silence surrounding the Power Rangers‘ next outing was instead the result of a development cycle so troubled that the entire project has now been depowered.
Per a June 11th report from TVLine’s Matt Webb Mitovich, according to his alleged insider sources, Entwistle’s reboot is “no longer moving forward at Netflix”, with Hasbro instead looking to explore “a new creative direction for the series and with a new partner.”
Unfortunately for fans, said sources did not specify whether this “new creative direction” would still involve the series being written for YA audiences.
While some may admittedly be disheartened by the reboot’s supposed trip back to the drawing board and how it represents yet another instance of the Rangers’ continued mishandling, it should be noted that given Hasbro’s growing embarrassment towards the franchise’s core identity in recent years, fans likely dodged a bullet thanks to this development.
Though no longer attached to the series itself, this sentiment was best explained by none other than long-time franchise director and producer Simon Bennett.
Responding in September 2023 to the widespread disappointment felt by fans towards Cosmic Fury‘s decision to use original Ranger designs rather than any suits from their Japanese source material counterparts, Bennett opined, “Call me radical, but I suspect that those adult Power Ranger fans who are also diehard Super Sentai fans, may be vociferous when PR deviates from its traditional source material, but are also a minuscule percentage of the viewership of the show. Which is made for children.”
“I think part of Hasbro’s goal to move PR to being fully original, is to reduce aspects of Sentai style and design, which may be challenging for US kids,” the former franchise EP. “The superheroes in spandex fighting rubber monster suits trope is a hard sell to audiences brought up on Marvel and Star Wars.”
“I think, and this is only my opinion, that to reach a large mainstream audience, the franchise has to move away from its Tokusatsu roots,” Bennett concluded. “It’s this that has kept Power Rangers niche for so long with US audiences. It needs to do this in a way that is fresh and compelling.”
