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Friday, July 10, 2020

Musings about Star Wars The Mandalorian and ideas for the future of Power Rangers


Disney Plus not only released Star Wars: The Mandalorian late last year but also Disney Gallery which is a behind the scenes round table show with the creators John Favreau and Dave Filoni and the directors and cast. Watching all the episodes, I got inspired. In "Connections" (the last episode), they reveal the various props and easter eggs from comics, video games, animated series and other things used in the Mandalorian. 

Dave Filoni mentions the difference between doing a lipservice to fans and weaving in canon and callbacks into the story and emotion of the story. He says it takes time. He says it is better when the producers actually understand where fans come from than just saying "Look, it's this past thing." just to make fans happy. It has me thinking of recent callbacks in Power Rangers seasons trying to service to fans that come out hallow. They even made a vehicle based on an old Kenner/Hasbro toy to put in the show. It was never used in the movies and was only a toy.

What had me interested is in the cosplay group 501st stormtroopers. It is a large group of cosplayers who are usually called for big public events. They also go to charitable events and hospitals. They made their armors themselves. Mandalorian producers called them and they didn't know they were going to be in the show. Needless to say, they were surprised and happy. It has me thinking about Power Rangers cosplayers. For the Legendary Battle, they hired extras to be other Power Ranger teams but they didn't have enough of them. It would be great if cosplayers got together like a big group and each one as assigned a team and could get together to be each team. So this is speculations and dreams, it would be great if a company was doing a mini-series or movie that needed past Rangers and called this hypothetical cosplayer group.


Has me thinking of Shattered Grid which had all Ranger teams get together and battle. It would be great if there was a mini-series or TV movie based on Shattered Grid or something similar. Or maybe a series similar to Mandolorian that dealt with past teams and had one lone ranger from the future or something like that. And it could be an open sandbox to play with toys--using props and characters from past seasons, comics, games, and movies. I always had an idea about the "Last Power Ranger" which the Power Rangers Super Legends game had the Omega Ranger from the future. So let's say this idea could tie in with "Sliders" and the aim is the protagonist Ranger can travel to different dimensions since Dino Charge and RPM teams are in other dimensions. 


What do you guys think? Would it be great to have live-action mini-series or TV movies that deal with the canon and large Power Rangers universe? Amit B. had an idea for Power Rangers Ninja Storm called "Hexagon" where the rangers had an "Avengers" like organization. And there would a divide between two sections of Rangers. Even though I like that idea, I think the "Last Power Ranger" idea would be interesting, in order to cover different aspects of the Ranger universe. Also, if said mini-series is successful, it could lead to the "Hexagon" idea and other spin-offs. So reiterating what I already said, it would be cool to have a mini-series and a cosplay group of past ranger teams in case they can be used for any movie, etc. 

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Hasbro breaking ties with Toei?

Illuminerdi claims Hasbro has cut ties with Toei. Toei, for those who do not know, is the company that creates the source footage of Super Sentai. Toei has been tied to Power Rangers since the beginning in 1993 and also created Kamen Rider, Metal Heroes, and other series that were adapted into Masked Rider, Beetleborgs, and VR Troopers. Illuminerdi says after Dino Fury, they will no longer be adapting from Sentai and future plans have not been announced. This is all speculation. Some fans say this could be a hoax but usually, bad news is true news. Last year on Netflix's The Toys that Made Us said Hasbro was no longer working with Toei, which fans took as a mistake. The only reason I can think of dropping Toei is to save money and not rely on the footage, which it was rumored Disney wanted to do. The following are not true and these are my guesses only.

Here are my speculations and ideas:
1. Hasbro creates its own footage
This would be the ideal that Hasbro creates their own footage instead of Sentai, which includes arsenal, ranger, zords, and villains created by Hasbro. I would love to see designs and footage created from Hasbro. 

2. Animated Series -- comic-based
An animated series is the most obvious choice if Toei is gone. Going animated would be cheaper. With Transformers, Hasbro has gone from regular traditionally animated to computer-animated. The Boom comics are popular and fans have loved the storylines. Having an animated series based on Shattered Grid would be a dream for fans. The comics are mostly for teenagers and adults, so an animated series based on the comics would be for age group older than the usual age group. I would love it to be not TV-MA but at least TV-14.

3. Animated Series - based on the past
Disney had ideas of an animated series based on Doggie Kruger from SPD with a new team or a team mixed with old characters. An idea for an animated series would be not based on comics but a story that continues the canon. It could have the MMPR team or a team made of rangers from different teams. As it is animated, it doesn't have to rely on actors, they could have other voice actors.

4. Animated Series - Newly created series
Hasbro can choose just to make a new series like Sentai does but animated. It can be unrelated to the lore and canon like any other season. 

5. Independent streaming series 
They could have a regular series (live action or animated) for the young audience and then an independent series for older audiences like mentioned before. it could be animated or it could be live-action.