Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Future of the Power Rangers #4: Speculations and Jumping the Gun

Now that it has been revealed that re-runs of the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is being re-aired on ABC and that Bandai America is producing new toys based on them, fans have been going nuts. Some are happy about the new toys. Some can't stop thinking about the future, and speculating. Many fans still wonder if there will be another season. Others really want Shinkenger to be adapted. Some think MMPR is being re-made but it is not. The truth is we don't really know what is going to happen. But what is happening is that MMPR the TV series is not being 're-made,' only the toys are. It is possible the franchise is taking a break and we will get a new season in the future. Since most of the crew wrapped up in New Zealand, it most likely they might start production in another country, most likely according to rumors--it will be Canada or they might start all over again in New Zealand.

MYTH: MMPR will be remade.
TRUTH: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers repeats will air in January 2010. And a new toy line will be released this winter of 2009. There will be no remake of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV Series so far.

SPECULATIONS:
My speculation is that the Power Rangers will remain at the Disney Hollywood Studios at Disneyworld, and we will get the MMPR Red Ranger to replace the SPD Red Ranger. That sounds like the most reasonable solution. I am sure Disney will like showing off the original Red Ranger and it will get lots of attention.

UPDATED 10/7/09 8am EST
Why doesn't Disney make their own Power Rangers without Super Sentai footage?
T.K. brought up this question and my theory is because of costs. Disney cut the budget to JF and RPM, even with existing footage, the shows cost money. Bandai America supplied the money for Battlizers, bikes and the Spirit Rangers but with low sales of toys, they couldn't do it anymore. Disney wanted to cut Toei and Bandai out of the equation to get more money, but since they can't afford going solo (Imagine, if Disney thinks the budget is big already with the help of the Sentai footage---without it, the budget would be even larger), they wanted to go animated and Toei didn't approve. But if they did make the effort of doing their own Power Rangers, they would have to rely on Plex and Bandai to design the toys and everything and Disney rather do it all their own and Toei won't let that happen, depending on the situation.


POSSIBLE SCENARIOS
These are some possible scenarios, just speculations to what will happen to the future of the Power Rangers.

2011:
  • Either Season 2 of MMPR gets repeated
  • We get a new season, adapted from Shinkenger (2009)
  • We get a new season, adapted from Goseiger (2010 Sentai)
2012:
  • Either Season 3 of MMPR gets repeated
  • We get a new season, adapted from Shinkenger
  • We get a new season, adapted from Goseiger or 2011 Sentai
2013:
  • Either we get a new season, adapted from Shinkenger
  • We get a new season, adapted from Goseiger
  • We get a new season, adapted from Gokaiger
  • We get a new season, adapted from Goseiger
  • We get nothing.

UPDATED 10/7/09 5pm EST
Please stop asking why Shinkenger is not being adapted. We don't know for sure but I theorize that even if it was Boukenger or Dekaranger, Shinkenger was just a 'victim' this year to not be adapted. Who knows, it might be adapted. Shinkenger is not that hard to adapt, they can say the Kanji are just made-up symbols and look at Ninja Storm. Disney just decided to take a break and concentrate on MMPR.


Related Topic: The Future of the Power Rangers 3: Clarifications | The Future of the Power Rangers Part 2 | The Future of the Power Rangers | Breaking News!! New MMPR Figures 2010 | MMPR Black appears in Bandai video

8 comments:

Unknown said...

My possible scenario for the future of the Power Rangers. "REBOOT" the franchise.

C. Bohn said...

Bandai wants each new Super Sentai to start in September by 2010. If Disney wants to return to the old arrangement of adapting last year's Super Sentai after the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers revival, that would be the time to do it.

T.K. said...

Just wondering: Why isn't a new PR series that *isn't* adapted from Sentai - i.e. wholly developed by Disney - not listed as an option? I thought Disney's main problem with the existing arrangement was Saban/Toei's piece of the pie stemming from the use of the Sentai footage.

Dizzy said...

My theory (that I stand by 100%) is that Disney isn't interested in converting Shinkenger because it would be just too difficult to do. The series is just seeping with Japanese culture, and a lot of things just wouldn't translate well. So, they're going to wait a year or two, develop a new series PROPERLY that works perfectly off existing Sentai footage, and give it more time. I find it ridiculous that they can't come up with more than 30-35 episodes from existing Sentai, when Sentai shows are approximately 50 episodes in length, not including the spinoff Vs. movies and their own movies. It's really hard to figure out.

Shinkenger's not being brought over, and that's probably the best thing Disney's ever done with the PR series.

C. Bohn said...

Disney wanted a say in Super Sentai's development to make Power Rangers adaptions smoother, and obviously to prevent another Shinkenger. I don't see them doing a domestic season parallel to a Japanese one. They would just want the Super Sentai season to work better as an American program.

Anonymous said...

Hey why not dubbed shinkenger? i seen a couple of the shinkenger episode and its really cool.

Dizzy said...

Casey - To hell with Disney. Why should they get Toei to change their vision for the series just to make Disney's job easier?

Does Toei make any money off PR other than the money Disney pays for footage?

Lavender Ranger said...

Casey, you saying the "Disney wanted a say in Super Sentai's development to make Power Rangers adaptions smoother," is a nice theory. But according to Producer, Hideaki Tsukada, there is not much communication between the two camps. And according to my insider, Toei is very happy working with Disney. But maybe there would be some conflict with Disney, Bandai America, Toei and Bandai Japan.