Following Hasbro buying the brand from Saban a couple of years ago, Paramount is working on a new Power Rangers reboot that won’t have anything to do with the Lionsgate movie from 2017. At the end of last year, we finally got some details about the project as well, with The Hollywood Reporter confirming that Jonathan Entwistle is attached to direct based on a script from Patrick Burleigh.
The plot will put a unique twist on the franchise and feature a bunch of modern-day Rangers being sent back into the 1990s, where – in classic Back to the Future style – they have to work out how to return to their own time. That’s all that THR told us, however, so it was unclear whether the film’s period setting would have any connection to the original Mighty Morphin series. We Got This Covered can now report, though, that this looks to be the case.
According to our sources – the same ones that previously told us that a Transformers reboot is in the works and that Viola Davis would return for The Suicide Squad, both of which we now know to be true – the original Green and Pink Rangers will be involved in the movie. It’s currently unclear exactly how they’ll factor in, but we’ve been informed that the time travel angle is key to their appearance. What this sounds like, then, is that stars Jason David Frank and Amy Jo Johnson will reprise their classic roles as Tommy Oliver and Kimberly Hart and we’re told that de-aging tech will likely be used to make them look like their 90s selves.
At present, it seems like only Frank and Johnson of the original team will be involved. This follows the 2017 film also featuring the duo in a brief cameo appearance – they showed up as a couple of Angel Grove residents cheering on the Rangers after they saved the town. And if they do end up in the new reboot, that’ll mean they’ll have appeared in every theatrically released Rangers film to date – following 1995’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and 1997’s Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.
In any case, we know that Paramount certainly have big plans for the Power Rangers, as they may even crossover with the Transformers franchise. That wouldn’t happen for some time, of course, but for now, it definitely sounds like the upcoming reboot is going to have much for fans to enjoy.
