Let me start by saying I’m not angry. I’m just confused.
Somebody needs to explain what’s going on with this show. First it moves from Nickelodeon, which is still doing Hasbro’s current Transformers show, to Netflix, which apparently is going to lead to LESS new episodes for the Cosmic Fury season. They’re using Zord footage from one show and costume footage from a different show or their own costumes, I’m not sure which. Lord Zedd is back, even though he’s not the same guy who was Z-Waved into a normal human along with Rita Repulsa (and yet they still had a kid that makes Two-Face look more possible). That’s a long story we won’t get into here. Billy’s coming back, my favorite Blue Ranger, but with no sign of his alien wife, though I suspect they’re going to pull a Sulu and make him gay now because the actor is despite the character being shown as straight since early season one (Billy was the one who got the most chicks, not the hip hop dude who pursued one woman and the jock who we didn’t see in a romance until long after high school) and was still involved with Cestria as late as the recent team-up movie I really want to see, and with the tomboy’s girlfriend (because of course the tomboy’s a lesbian in modern US TV…it’s increasingly rare when they aren’t) now joining up for whatever reason. They’re also continuing a team longer, into multiple seasons and name changes not slapping a “Super” into it, like the original Mighty Morphin’. I know the Hasbro period has tied in the previous shows, but they used to build on Ranger lore, not go back to old stuff.
Now Simon Bennett, the executive producer, seems to think that the best way for Power Rangers to return to the mainstream is to get away from its roots. There has been rumors and theories like the franchise going the animated route and dropping the live actors altogether, but nothing official. Someone even wanted to do an adult Ranger show instead of just a Sentai type show for adults, like Bat In The Sun’s Dragon Ranger movie that featured Ranger actors until the passing of Jason David Frank. This is the last season that will be filmed in New Zealand according to the Ranger Wiki, but given the current strike situation isn’t affecting this show they may want to rethink that. However, according to comments collected by Bounding Into Comics it seems that Bennett believes sticking to the tokusatsu/sentai formula that the series is built around is what’s hurting the franchise. It’s like saying keeping Star Trek in outer space is killing the franchise. I mean, how much does he want to change?
The current series coming to Netflix, Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, is a continuation of Dino Fury, with mostly the same cast and the previously noted new additions, plus also Mick from the Ninja Steel seasons. I’m not up on my sentai but apparently Cosmic Fury is using Zord footage from Uchu Sentai Kyuranger but uses original costumes and I’m guessing morphers. This is confusing fans, though the Ranger Wiki suspects it’s due to the 12 Sentai members as 10 episodes is barely enough to work with six…or seven, or however many Rangers we’re getting and the helmet design of Kajiki Yellow being a bit too pointy as if the action figure couldn’t alter that and still work.
This also allows them to make Amelia the new Red Ranger and you know the female Red Ranger is going to be important to them…because we’ll never get a Native American Red Ranger played by an actual Native American. Granted she’s not the first girl leader thanks to Mighty Morphin’ Alien Rangers and Time Force. Zayto will now be the Zenith Ranger in order to make that happen. I remember when I found it funny when Izzy ripped off the skirt part of her outfit because she doesn’t like skirts due to being a tomboy. Now I see it as the start of the current mindset taking over the show. And it’s not like fans aren’t worried that Bennett is trying to mess with the Japanese, another target of the usual suspects due to how Japanese creators are actually creating for Japan instead of the Americans who DON’T watch Japanese media. Whether or not this is Bennett’s plan is hard to tell in the modern entertainment culture, aka Hollywood and those who want to be like Hollywood. Reading through his Twitter feed for this article I’m not far off. So what is his response to the annoyance of not using the Sentai outfits?
https://twitter.com/Pookina1/status/1694870354995642567
You mean like the whole franchise? Haim Saban had been trying to get the Sentai format into US TV for years. We recently learned about an attempt prior to the comedic dub of Dynaman airing on USA Network’s Night Flight block (with the first two later aired on Nickelodeon as a test) before finally getting Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers onto TVs. Basically, being Sentai for Americans was the whole point of the show and losing that loses what set the Power Rangers apart from other live-action superhero shows, with until that point had disappeared from kids TV after my childhood and the Shazam!/Isis Hour. Power Rangers in turn revitalized action shows for kids in live-action form. Now they’re dying in both live-action and animation but that’s another conversation. If Bennett is going to deviate from the source material, why is he working on Power Rangers? Then again, I’ve been asking that about the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Avengers: Endgame.
In responses on X-Twitter, a couple of people pointed out that the adult collectors do not make up the majority of the sales or viewership. It’s a kids show…but so is Transformers and nobody minds that they keep trying to make adult material. The same for modern superhero stories, Power Rangers being the only one that’s still for kids. Except it sounds like hiding behind “it’s just a kids show” again, but it’s the Sentai that made it unique among heroes. I’m not even against dropping the Sentai footage altogether and going completely original in theory, but that limitation did force the creators to be…creative in what stories they came up with. The weak ones just aped the Sentai while the good ones came up with original stories that worked with the monsters and fight footage that was there to save the show money.
https://twitter.com/Pookina1/status/1698900882577076410
Well, given that this is preparing the long-time fans now it might be a blessing in disguise, provided you can win them over. Of course, his defenders are using the usual defenses. “It’s not out yet” forgets that the point of promotional material is to get people excited for the product. If it’s doing the exact opposite it could lead to less support for the show. Those old fans are going to show the thing to their kids, which they’ll need help with now that the show will be buried in Netflix instead of on a network that would actually advertise it being available. Then there’s one proclamation I won’t post because it was a fan and not one of the showrunners or cast. I don’t want fans going after each other even when they act like you’re not allowed to disagree. The comment reads “I just don’t understand WHY Cosmic Fury and the suits are being hated on SO BAD I know I’m new to the pr fan base, but it seems like a nice fan base except with this new season, for some reason???? Like it isn’t fun and half of the time comes off as obnoxious to me”. It’s X-Twitter. Character limits and fast typing lead to bad spelling. The point as I read it (I could be wrong) is that you need to like EVERY version or you’re not a “true fan”, or at least you aren’t allowed to get annoyed at changes you don’t like, as if this is the first time a Power Ranger series was not warmly received. Look up the response to the MegaForce seasons.
Speaking of which, another commenter wrote “Ok, here’s what I don’t get…I doubt anyone’s gonna respond to this, but it really seems like (Bennett) and team have really gone out of their way to give fans everything they’ve been asking for for since I can remember being in the fandom…”, as if they aren’t allowed to be concerned by Power Rangers changing direction. For a lot of people Power Rangers was their introduction to Sentai. Saban didn’t want to change the costumes at first because all the merch branding used the Zyuranger suits, only changing Tommy’s from Green to White to work with the Dairanger footage. It turned out to work with the Kakuranger footage thanks to the white falcon mech, but there’s a reason that starting with Alien Rangers and Zeo they started getting new costumes even while sticking to the old cast through half of Turbo and having transitions to new teams. Starting with Lost Galaxy we started getting whole new teams, but still ties to the past that finally ended with the start of Lightspeed Rescue, the first clean break in the story.
At this point it’s been personal bias in my responses. There are points to be made for not relying on the Sentai footage and points for. Even Japan has found what we did with the Sentai footage interesting. I’d be neutral if not for my own bias at seeing the Sentai footage, then going back to the old Sentai when Shout Factory posts it (and I have time to watch it). There was even an episode of Dino Thunder that had fun with this and the Bounding Into Comics article shows Akibaranger, a more comedic Sentai show, had some fun with it as well. I don’t think the Sentai footage hurts the show. It makes a bridge between US and Japan, something a lot of US creators seem to want to end given Netflix’s history. The positive response to Netflix’s live-action One-Piece is because the creator of the manga had more control than the other creators had when it came to the crap adaptations Netflix made from Death Note or Cowboy Bebop. However, there then comes the following, and I do have to post the fans posting here because that’s how X-Twitter likes to make me embed responses.
https://twitter.com/Pookina1/status/1701030316033659126
When asked what that means, Bennett responded:
https://twitter.com/Pookina1/status/1701421552863232489
Careful, Simon. That way of thinking killed the classic run of Doctor Who in the UK and left us without a show for a few generations, coming back with something that’s become less and less of a kids show as the series has gone on. The thing is, the “campy rubber monsters” is part of the fun of the show. Yes, it’s campy. It was created to be campy. There’s nothing wrong with BEING campy. People still love 1960s Batman and homages to the Silver Age comics are easy to find. Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills, the cheap Rangers knockoff from DiC Entertainment, didn’t fail because it was camp. It failed because it was crap, with a couch cushion budget (typical for DiC-produced live-action), lame outfit reuses, and actors who weren’t given a reason to care about their performances. The concept was actually pretty solid, but the execution suffered. A lot.
https://twitter.com/Pookina1/status/1701032880447848462
I do agree with that part, but the “cheap” monster were also what gave the show its flavor. Even the US-produced monsters and enemies had them, not only to keep up with the Sentai footage (they did alter the unsuited fights to match up as Mighty Morphin’ went on so they look like the same characters despite different footage) but to keep the look and feel of Power Rangers. What Bennett is listing are the basic looks, but any generic Power Rangers knockoff or fan homage/parody/”darker take” has that. The Boom comics have that and I hear stuff gets more serious and dark over there, which is why I don’t want to read it. Power Rangers is also supposed to be fun for those children you mentioned. Heck RPM is basically Terminator: Salvation for kids and they remembered that!
As mentioned, I also don’t see working with the Sentai footage as that much of a limit. It’s more of a challenge. And as one other commenter said it: “If you make Power Rangers a generic cookie cutter super hero thing. Then you lose both the niche audience and wont gain the casual crowd because there’s already 100+ super hero things done with a higher budget and done better. Being ashamed of what your are is no way to improve.” I couldn’t put it better myself.
Could the end product, or if Bennett gets his way with future shows, the franchise as a whole end up any good? I’ll never know for certain; I don’t have Netflix. It’s possible but this is part of a trend of taking what’s worked for years and tossing it out. I don’t know that Power Ranges is all that niche, and I’m not convinced making it more like every other superhero product will boost the series back into the mainstream given how generic it’s becoming. If anything is causing this alleged “superhero fatigue” it is the genericness of it all. Lame jokes, no real stakes, unfaithful adaptations…nobody wants to see Power Rangers do that. What’s going to get new kids into these shows is that they know they exist and how to find them…and it’s the nostalgic old fans showing the new shows to their kids, nieces, nephews, kids their babysitting, and younger siblings. Chase them off and put them where they’ll get buried in a bunch of other kids shows, and you won’t see a new audience of kids, while apparently you don’t care about the adults coming on board. Franchises can still go on despite not being the juggernaut it was. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn’t the same household name and it still puts out stuff. Some of it is actually good and some involve Seth Rogen. Transformers has existed somewhere in the world since 1984.
The snobs are not going to put Power Rangers alongside the grown-up superhero shows. It doesn’t have to. Power Rangers has managed to satisfy both kids and adults for a couple generations. I was technically too old for the show when it first came out and I still enjoyed it. Long running franchises are going to change, adapt, and refresh. It’s the nature of the beast, and often crucial to its success. Just don’t throw out what does work and the core of the property while doing so. Or you get the current MCU.
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