Power Rangers’ New Disney+ Reboot Has a Bright Future After Super Sentai Cancellation

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Following reports that have been popping up in the last few months about a potential new project in the works, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians showrunners Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shot have confirmed that they are now in the midst of working on the new Power Rangers reboot series with Disney+. The slate has been cleared for both Super Sentai and Power Rangers at this time, so there’s no better opportunity for a reboot as even the most prickly fans will be in the proper headspace to fully accept any new take.

Power Rangers Fans Should Be Used to Reboots, But Also Hate Change

Courtesy of Hasbro

One of the more glaring troubles about being such a longtime fan of Power Rangers is the fact that there’s always some kind of contingent that’s resistant to change. Though the franchise itself quite literally reboots with every season as each new one follows a brand new team with a brand new set of powers, it was usually based on the footage pulled from Super Sentai shows in Japan. And because of it, those fans who loved Super Sentai want to see them pretty much adapted as it. With a full transition of the ideas and visuals into this Power Rangers format.

For example, Power Rangers Cosmic Fury was an interesting experiment in Hasbro’s then ongoing release deal with Netflix. It was a series that opted for a brand new story with its own Power Rangers suits and villains, but still took some elements from the Super Sentai series, 2017’s Uchu Sentai Kyuranger. Rather than take the new Power Rangers series for what it was and what it was trying to do, much of the conversation online was just a lot of complaints over the fact that it wasn’t using the suits, character ideas, or stories from that Super Sentai series.

This wasn’t something unique to Cosmic Fury, either, as Power Rangers has been picking and choosing elements from different Super Sentai shows ever since the second season. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was running out of Megazord and various fight footage from the original series it was drawing from, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, and thus started to pull in two other shows entirely, Gosei Sentai Dairanger (where the White Ranger suit comes from) and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger (for the ninja powers and “Alien Rangers”). But for whatever reason, this is the breaking point for many present day fans.

There’s Nothing Holding Back This New Era

Hasbro

But without Super Sentai in the picture, Power Rangers is going to need to succeed on its own. It’s likely to borrow from its own history and reboot the Mighty Morphin crew for a new generation, and that’s going to alleviate that issue fans had with the Super Sentai adaptations. There’s no other show to draw from or compare to, and that means this new Power Rangers reboot series is going to be judged on its own merits. Because the original is so old by this point, it’s not going to serve as a great point of comparison outside of nostalgia either.

Hasbro had already shut down a potential Power Rangers reboot that was seeking to start an extended universe, so it’s likely this new Disney+ series has a much better foot forward. It’s going to be the proper way to bring fans into the new era, and even the most prickly fans are going to appreciate getting a new Power Rangers series at all. Without Super Sentai or Power Rangers ongoing before this release, fans are going to be ready and waiting to fully embrace this new vision of the future. Whatever that may be.

It can be a touchy subject rebooting such a classic children’s series, but Power Rangers is a franchise built with that into its DNA. It’s been rebooting Super Sentai from the jump for worldwide audiences, and now it’s going to take that energy to itself. Power Rangers is best when it’s able to draw on its own history and ideas, and a reboot being able to do that without the guidelines of also airing Super Sentai shows to compare it to means it’s going to have a better shot at succeeding.

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