Welcome to your one stop location for all the news about the upcoming Power Rangers movie.
Power Rangers is headed to the big screen. After premiering in 1993, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers took the world by storm, becoming a bonafide pop culture phenomenon that’s spawned over 23 seasons and two major feature films in the 90’s. Now a third film is on the way, courtesy of Saban Brands and Lionsgate.
* note: this article is updated regularly *
We've got another look at Elizabeth Banks as iconic Power Rangers villain Rita Repulsa. The official Power Rangers Movie Instagram account just posted this to their page...
As revealed by USA Today, we've got a look at our team in the suits but mostly helmetless. For long time fans, this harkens back to the original plan for the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers movie where the characters faces would have see through helmets. This was later abandoned in reshoots, but this is obviously a much better execution of that idea.
The official Power Rangers movie twitter also dropped five new teaser posters showing off the main cast of Zack, Kimberly, Billy, Trini, and Jason.
Ludi Lin as Zack the Black Ranger.
Naomi Scott as Kimberly the Pink Ranger.
RJ Cyler as Billy the Blue Ranger.
Becky G as Trini the Yellow Ranger.
Dacre Montgomery as Jason the Red Ranger.
The teaser poster was also unvieled that gives us a slightly obscured look at the team with a tagline.
It isn't much, but Zack, Kimberly, Billy, and Trini are all standing atop a car while Jason is by himself. Could that hint at a direction for the film? The stars in the top of the picture form the lightning bolt seen in the logo of the film, which you can see the full version of below.
The logo includes an update to the classic Power Rangers lightning bolt and even retains Saban's name.
Power Rangers Movie Story
This film appears to be a reboot in line with other franchise’s like Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, taking the ideas of the original show and reimagining them for a modern day audience. The film’s plot is as follows.
Saban’s Power Rangers follows five ordinary high school kids who must become something extraordinary when they learn that their small town of Angel Grove – and the world – is on the verge of being obliterated by an alien threat. Chosen by destiny, our heroes quickly discover that they are the only ones who can save the planet. But to do so they will have to overcome their real-life issues and band together as the Power Rangers before it is too late.
There's an earlier synopsis, but it told us practically nothing.
"From a story by Executive Producer Roberto Orci (TRANSFORMERS, STAR TREK, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2) and screenwriters Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller (X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, THOR) comes a modern reinvention of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a group of ordinary high school kids who find themselves infused with extraterrestrial powers and must harness those powers as a team to save the world."
Power Rangers Movie Cast
The main cast of the film includes Dacre Montgomery (A Few Less Men) as Jason, RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) as Billy, Naomi Scott (The 33) as Kimberly, Becky G (Empire) as Trini, Ludi Lin (Monster Hunt) as Zack, Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) as Zordon, and Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect, The Hunger Games franchise) as Rita Repulsa. Thanks to Entertainment weekly, we've got our first shot of the new cast in character.
There has been much talk about the swapping of the original characters races, with four the five Rangers changed. The director of the film stated,
From the very beginning, diversity was a very important part of the whole process. We switched all of the races around, but we made sure that the essence of each of those characters are who they were in the original show, and this really will be an origin story of those characters.
Bryan Cranston, playing the teams mentor Zordon, is actually the first cast member from the original series to be brought back for the reboot. Cranston originally voiced two monsters in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the character of Billy Cranston was named after him.
Entertainment Weekly dropped a photo of the new suits and while they echo the designs of the classic outfits, they have more of an organic feel.
Production designer Andrew Menzies (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) spoke about the design of the costumes, which may hint at plot points in the film, “Ours is an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans.”
An alien costume? That's a departure for Power Rangers, but anything is possible with a reboot! The suits also closely resemble Elizabeth Ranks out as Rita. Israelite spoke about her casting.
It’s very exciting that we got (Banks), and I think what she loves is the opportunity to really embrace the insanity and deliciousness of Rita Repulsa in terms of how weird and wonderful that character was, and really dive into and consume that character. You should always be off-balance when you’re watching her. Is she insane? Is she totally calculated? Does she know what she’s doing? Elizabeth can toe that line really well.
Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly we have a look at Rita's outfit for the film.
The outfit bears little resemblence to the classic Rita outfit, lacking the distinctive headgear, cone boobs, and staff. In fact, the outfit more closely resembles one of Rita's henchmen, Scorpina with shades of the Jungle Fury villain Camille. See for yourself.
See what we mean? The green seems like an odd choice until you hear what Banks had to say when she spoke to People about playing Rita.
It's definitely a modern and edgy re-imagining of the original Rita Repulsa. We wanted to give her a backstory that connects her to the new Rangers.
Hmmm. Backstory that connects to the Rangers? We certainly see that with how the outfit resmbeles the Rangers. Green color? Some set up for the eventual Green Ranger reveal? Well we now know, thanks to Entertainment Weekly and Becky G, what Rita's plan in the movie are for the Rangers.
From Entertainment Weekly's description of the image.
In an attempt to take them down one by one, she (Rita) ambushes Yellow Ranger Trini in her bedroom, but Trini puts up a fight — a fight that eventually has her pinned against the wall.
Becky G went on to the describe what leads to the fight.
Rita tries to make Trini feel like she’s the weakest link of the Power Rangers, and she feels it’s easiest to go for her. Rita’s the type to play a lot of mind games, and Trini’s [thinking], “Can I really overpower Rita Repulsa or can I not?”
How much will the film be tied into Power Rangers past? Right now it’s hard to say, although when Roberto Orci was still on the project he commented, “It's got a continuity within the world. I can't tell you what, but it does have a continuity.” Whether that means simply including the old characters or actually tieing it into the plot of the new TV series remains to be seen. So far, there haven’t been any confirmed cameos from the old cast members, though Austin St. John hinted at having talks with certain people.
Well, one old character is returning but not one you'd expect. Jason's father, now named Sam Scott, will be played by David Denman (13 Hours) as revealed by The Hollywood Reporter. The character is descibred as, "often at odds with his son over Jason's football career." Jason's father originally appeared in the two part episode Return of an Old Friend along with the other Rangers families. There he was a simple meat head who wore red just like his son. In the description provided by THR we already have a more interesting character. Will the other Rangers parents make an apperance?
Power Rangers Movie Production
The film is directed by Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) who spoke about how he got the job and the tone of the film in June 2015.
I read the script and was really surprised by it. (It’s a) really cool, contemporary, mature but still playful, buoyant and fun take on the material, and was updated in a really interesting way. I put a really big presentation together, because I needed to win the job. There were a lot of guys going out for it and saw the potential in it, so I put a really big presentation together and was lucky enough to get the job. (The tone of the film) needs to be completely playful. Like Project Almanac, I hope it's going to feel very grounded at the same time.
The script was written by John Gatins (Kong: Skull Island, Real Steel), Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama (Dracula Untold), Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller (X-Men: First Class, Thor).
Max Landis had spoken about his work on the film on his twitter, mentioning that his pitch was,” The Breakfast Club meets Independence Day”. Its unknown how much of that idea will make it to the final draft. When the movie was officially announced, Stentz and Miller were the ones being touted as the main writers. Gatins, Sharpless, and Sazama’s involvement on the film was relatively unknown until the most recent press release. Whether they came in before or after Miller and Stentz remains to be seen.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Israelite spoke about wanting the story reflect the lives of teens today.
The new Power Rangers is a coming of age story for these “disenfranchised and disparate” high schoolers, who are not friends when the new story begins.
Roberto Orci was originally attached as an executive producer to the project but bowed out in September 2014. Now the movie is being produced by Haim Saban, Brian Casentini, Wyck Godfrey, and Marty Bowen (The Twilight Saga, The Fault in Our Stars, The Maze Runner franchise) with Allison Shearmur (The Hunger Games franchise; Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Brent O’Connor(Warcraft) as executive producers.
The film has also recently added Brian Tyler (Avengers: Age of Ultron; Furious 7) as the composer and the famed Weta Workshop (The Lord of the Rings) will be in charge of suit design and visual effects.
Power Rangers Movie Release Date
The film was original scheduled for a release in July 2016, was pushed back to January 2017, and then further to March 24, 2017. This takes the spot of another Lionsgate property, The Divergent Series: Ascendant.
Back when the film was originally shifted to January, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer cited American Sniper of all movies as a recent example of how a post-Christmas movie can succeed, stating, “We're picking a dating where we think we can win.”
That March release date indicates even more confidence in the project. Hopefully it doesn't move any further.
