We haven’t touched on this ’round these parts because I didn’t think it was worth talking about. And, really, what is there to say? Reports of Disney’s interest in developing a Power Rangers show lead to periods of silence before last month’s report that Disney backed away due to budgetary concerns. Is there any real surprise that this wouldn’t hold water?
Disney had dropped Doctor Who shortly after that run was completed. What made anyone think that they were going to go from spending money on one sci-fi property to spending money on another sci-fi property with a relatively smaller footprint? Not to mention that Disney, once upon a time, had Power Rangers as an intellectual property and largely treated as an afterthought before selling it back to Saban. If the Disney of old – long before they owned Marvel, Star Wars, 20th Century Fox, and other things – didn’t want to give Power Rangers the time of day, what made anyone think things were going to be different the second go-around?
As much as people want to believe otherwise, Power Rangers is this extremely niche thing that can never be anything more than what it is. They tried to turn it into broody teen angst superhero film almost a decade ago and not enough people cared enough for them to develop a sequel, during the days when everyone and their grandmothers thought that they could launch a cinematic universe full of puppy dogs and kitty kats. Turning it into generic superhero fare isn’t gonna work because that’s not what it is.
Developing a new PR series that isn’t just splicing in old Sentai footage for the action bits and building everything around that is not an easy process. At the same time, you can’t just do what the old show did and call it a reboot. If that were the case, there wouldn’t have been any reason to cancel the original run. I hate to say it, but as it is, the only sustainable means of getting new PR stories is through the ongoing comic books… and even those tend to be hit and miss.
I guess the wait continues… though I can’t imagine there be any solid movement towards a new show any time soon…
Should I go back to fanfiction? Has it come to that?
Eh.
Later.
