Power Rangers

• 1. Introduction

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  Power Rangers owes its existence to a hotel television in Japan. Haim Saban was on a business trip there in the 1980s. The only thing his hotel set would show was a series about five masked people in spandex suits fighting monsters. He was fascinated. That fascination eventually became an American franchise whose original series ran for 30 seasons, from 1993 to 2023. How does a Japanese show get rebuilt for American children? Why would a series made largely from borrowed footage sell billions of dollars in toys? And what happens to a franchise when its owners keep changing hands?

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• 2. Rejected Pilots

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  In the late 1970s, Toei Company and Marvel Comics struck a deal to swap concepts, so that each could adapt them for its own audience. Toei worked with Marvel Productions on a Japanese Spider-Man television series. Toei also produced three Super Sentai series, which did very well in Japan. Marvel and Stan Lee tried to sell one of them, Sun Vulcan, to American stations including HBO. They found no buyers, and the agreement ended.

  The show on Saban's hotel television was Choudenshi Bioman. In 1985 he produced Bio-Man, a pilot episode adapting it for American viewers. Several of the largest American television stations rejected it. Nothing moved until 1992, when Saban brought the idea to Fox Kids. Its president, Margaret Loesch, had previously led Marvel Productions and already knew Super Sentai.

  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers adapted Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, a Japanese series from 1992. It debuted on the 28th of August 1993 as part of Fox Kids, a programming block on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Decades later, Hasbro announced a National Power Rangers Day to honour that premiere.

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• 3. Splicing Two Worlds

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  Saban Entertainment chose not to simply dub or translate the Japanese shows. Instead, scenes with English-speaking actors were spliced together with Japanese material. Some of that material showed Japanese actors dubbed into English. The rest was Sentai action footage of Rangers fighting monsters or piloting giant robots, also dubbed. In some series, new fight scenes were filmed to include characters or items unique to the American production.

  At one brainstorming meeting, executives landed on the name Power Rangers. For the first show, they chose Mighty Morphin to evoke the transformation sequences. The same meeting produced the word Zord for the giant robots. It was meant to suggest both the sword carried by the Megazord and the dinosaurs that were the team's theme.

  Lord Zedd and Divatox are two examples of villains created for the American show with no Sentai counterpart. Most series follow that pattern for their primary antagonist, even when other villains come from Japan. Zeo, Lightspeed Rescue and a few other seasons are exceptions, using only villains adapted from the Japanese shows. The eighteenth season, Samurai, would later draw on the 2009 Super Sentai series Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

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• 4. Rules and Storylines

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  In the original Mighty Morphin, the wizard Zordon recruits "teenagers with attitude" to fight Rita Repulsa. That setup became the template. A mentor recruits and trains young people to morph into Power Rangers. They gain special powers and pilot immense machines called Zords against periodic enemies.

  Teams of three to five Rangers are typical, and more may join later. Morphed Rangers wear color-coded skin-tight spandex suits and helmets with opaque visors. The suits are identical apart from color, helmet design and small touches such as a skirt. Morphed Rangers generally have enhanced strength, durability, agility and fighting skill. Some have super-speed, element manipulation, extra-sensory perception or invisibility. Each also carries a unique weapon.

  Two rules were set out at the start of Mighty Morphin and echoed by mentors in many later series. Rangers may not use their powers for personal gain, or to escalate a fight unless the enemy does so first. They may not reveal their identities to the public. The penalty for breaking the rules is losing their power.

  Only Red and Blue appear in every Ranger team. As in Super Sentai, the color palette changes with each series. A Ranger's color often shapes the wardrobe too, since civilian clothing frequently matches it.

  The first six seasons, from Mighty Morphin through In Space, followed one evolving storyline. The second season began the yearly tradition of new Zords, while the first season's core suits stayed in use, apart from the White Ranger's. With the fourth season, Zeo, the show adopted the Super Sentai habit of changing Ranger suits every year.

  Lost Galaxy, the seventh season, was the first to tell a self-contained story, a pattern that held until the seventeenth season, RPM. It also began the tradition of team-up episodes bringing back Rangers, villains and other characters from past seasons. Samurai, the eighteenth season, returned to a multi-season format, with each story told across two seasons. The thirtieth season, Cosmic Fury, continues the story of Dino Fury.

  Executive producer Simon Bennett has said that Cosmic Fury was planned as the final season set in the canon established since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Hasbro instead opted for a franchise reboot.

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• 5. Toys and Controversy

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  By 2001, Power Rangers had generated more than 6 billion dollars in toy sales. That success came despite early criticism from some parents and media watchdogs, who argued that its violent action was unsuitable for a children's show. High ratings and toy sales followed the 1993 debut, and by early 1994 three million Power Rangers video cassettes had been sold in the United States. The franchise now ranks among the highest-grossing media franchises.

  On the 15th of February 2018, Saban Brands announced that its 25-year partnership with Bandai would end in 2019. The next day it was confirmed that Hasbro would become the "global master toy licensee" starting in April 2019, with a future option to buy the whole franchise. Hasbro paid 22.25 million dollars when the toy contract closed. That sum was later credited against the purchase price.

  In 2019, Hasbro launched the Power Rangers Lightning Collection, a collector line of articulated action figures and other collectibles. It drew on the television series, the BOOM! Studios comic books and other media. Hasbro also introduced two toy lines for kids, one promoting the Beast Morphers series and one aimed at preschoolers. It sublicensed the brand to companies such as Threezero and Super7 for high-end collectibles.

  In 2024, Playmates Toys signed an agreement with Hasbro to make toys based on the brand. The first product was a kid-targeted Mighty Morphin line, scheduled for 2025. Hasbro's CEO, Chris Cocks, explained on an earnings call that the brand was outsourced because of its low profitability.

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• 6. Passing Between Owners

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  Saban Entertainment produced and distributed Power Rangers from 1993 until the end of 2001, and Fox Kids aired it in the United States until the fall of 2002. In 2001, The Walt Disney Company acquired the franchise as part of a larger buyout of Fox Family Worldwide. Saban Entertainment became BVS Entertainment in 2002.

  From September 2002, the series aired on Disney-owned outlets. These included the ABC Kids block on ABC, the ABC Family and Toon Disney cable networks, and Jetix-branded outlets worldwide. After Wild Force ended, Disney moved production from Los Angeles to Studio West in New Zealand. Several ABC affiliate groups, including Hearst Television, declined to air the show because it lacked FCC-compliant educational and informational programming.

  Power Rangers Jungle Fury, in 2008, was originally set to be the final season. Obligations to Bandai meant Disney produced RPM in 2009 anyway. The New Zealand Herald reported on the 7th of March 2009 that RPM would be the last season. Production manager Sally Campbell said in an interview, "at this stage we will not be shooting another season." RPM ended on the 26th of December 2009. On the 1st of October 2009, Bandai announced that Disney would rebroadcast Mighty Morphin on ABC Kids in January 2010 instead of producing a new season.

  On the 12th of May 2010, Haim Saban bought the franchise back from Disney for 43 million dollars. The new season, Samurai, was produced under Saban Brands, a subsidiary of Saban Capital Group. It premiered on Nickelodeon on the 7th of February 2011. Reruns of earlier seasons followed on sister channel Nicktoons later that year. In 2012, Saban Brands launched a Saturday morning cartoon block on The CW called Vortexx, with reruns of Lost Galaxy.

  In October 2013, Saban Brands extended its agreements with Nickelodeon and Bandai America through 2016. In January 2016, Saban and Nickelodeon extended their broadcast partnership through 2018. In February 2018, it was announced that the series would keep airing on Nickelodeon through 2021.

  On the 1st of May 2018, Saban agreed to sell Power Rangers and other entertainment assets to Hasbro for 522 million dollars in cash and stock. The deal closed on the 2nd of July 2018, and Saban Brands ended operations. Hasbro's Allspark studio produced the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh seasons, Beast Morphers. From the twenty-eighth season, Dino Fury, production passed to Entertainment One. Hasbro acquired that company on the 30th of December 2019 and merged it with Allspark in October 2020.

  In late April 2021, actor Chance Perez said in an interview that the second season of Dino Fury would premiere on Netflix in 2022. That would be the first season to premiere exclusively through a streaming service. New episodes of the series moved to streaming on the 15th of June 2021. On the 28th of June 2023, Hasbro announced that Cosmic Fury would be the final season filmed in New Zealand.

  Jenny Klein was named on the 14th of June 2022 as showrunner for a Power Rangers series that Entertainment One was developing for Netflix. In June 2024, reports said none of those Netflix plans would move forward, and Hasbro Entertainment said it was seeking a new partner. In December 2024, rumors surfaced that Paramount Pictures was working with Hasbro on a reboot film.

  In March 2025, Hasbro Entertainment and 20th Television announced a new live-action series for Disney+. Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz were in talks to write and run it, and they publicly confirmed the project in December 2025. The following month, Toei Company president and CEO Fumio Yoshimura revealed that Toei was not involved in the reboot.

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• 7. Where Viewers Found It

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  As of 2006, Power Rangers aired at least 65 times a week in more than 40 markets worldwide. Many carried it on their local Fox channels or later on Jetix and Disney XD channels. Others syndicated it to regional children's channels, dubbed into the local language or in the original English. After the 2010 Saban Brands acquisition, MarVista Entertainment managed international television distribution until 2014. Saban took over until Hasbro's acquisition.

  Malaysia briefly banned the show, supposedly because the word Morphin' in the title could be associated with morphine and so with drug use. The series eventually aired there without the offending word.

  Japan treated the series differently because audiences already knew the Super Sentai brand. Many seasons and films were dubbed into Japanese, often with voice actors from past Super Sentai casts. That meant the English-dubbed action scenes were re-dubbed, or restored, to Japanese. Mystic Force is the most recent season broadcast in Japan, on Toei Channel in January 2014, with a different cast voicing the American characters.

  In South Korea, broadcast of Power Rangers ended with Wild Force. Bandai of Korea then began airing dubbed Super Sentai series under the Power Ranger brand on JEI TV. Some had titles similar to their American counterparts, such as Power Ranger Dino Thunder for Abaranger in 2007 and Power Ranger S.P.D. in place of Dekaranger.

  Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force and Wild Force reached DVD in Germany, and free DVDs came attached to the Jetix magazine in the UK. In France, Mighty Morphin Seasons 1 and 2 came out in five-episode DVD volumes, with the first 25 episodes of Season 3 following in May 2008. In Italy, Mighty Morphin and Dino Thunder were issued as bi-weekly volumes at newsstands.

  On the 15th of June 2011, every episode from Mighty Morphin Season 1 through the Mighty Morphin re-version became available for instant streaming on Netflix. In 2021, more than twenty seasons, along with specials and spin-off shows, were removed from Netflix. Only Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Ninja Steel and Beast Morphers remained. As of 2025, most seasons are on Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, Plex and Hasbro's official Power Rangers channel on YouTube.

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• 8. Beyond the Series

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  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie reached theaters on the 30th of June 1995, directed by Bryan Spicer. It earned about 66 million dollars worldwide. Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie followed on the 28th of March 1997, directed by David Winning and Shuki Levy, and earned under 10 million dollars. 20th Century Fox distributed both.

  Power Rangers, directed by Dean Israelite, was released by Lionsgate on the 24th of March 2017. It drew mixed reviews and a weak box-office showing, with a worldwide gross of about 142.5 million dollars.

  On the 11th of July 2019, actor Dacre Montgomery revealed during a Reddit AMA that the studio planned a second reboot without him, the rest of the cast or the director. On the 13th of December 2019, Jonathan Entwistle was reported to be in early talks to direct it, with Patrick Burleigh set to write the screenplay. The plot was reported to involve time travel and a 1990s setting. Entwistle later said the television series he was developing would share a canon with the film, which he called a "cinematic universe".

  Hamilton Comics published a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic in 1994-95, and Marvel Comics took over the title in 1995-96. Other publishers followed, including Image Comics with Zeo in 1996 and Tokyopop with Ninja Storm in 2003-04. In 2015, Boom! Studios won the comics license. Its output included Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink in 2016-17 and Go Go Power Rangers from 2017 to 2020. It also produced crossovers, such as Justice League/Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with DC Comics in 2017 and Godzilla vs Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 2022.

  The video game GTA V includes a fictitious animated show called Kung Fu Rainbow Lazerforce on its in-game television. The Annoying Orange series produced a parody called Sour Rangers. In 1995, the British wrestling promotion All Star Wrestling featured several masked wrestlers performing as the Power Restlin' Rangers.

  In June 2018, Penguin Random House released Alien Encounters in Angel Grove, a guide to the creatures of Mighty Morphin written by Gabriel P. Cooper. In November 2018, Insight Editions released Power Rangers: The Ultimate Visual History, covering the toys and television seasons of the franchise's 25-year run. In May 2025, Amulet Books published Force of Chaos, a young adult novel by Diana Ma centered on Trini Kwan. A second novel, Shatter the Universe, was released on the 19th of May 2026.

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