8 Upcoming Movies That Could Save Failing Franchises

4) Power Rangers

The franchise: Since it became a childrens’ TV giant back in 1993, the Power Rangers franchise has incredibly never stopped – with a new version of the mighty morphin’ colour-coordinated superheroes created practically every year. They even had a couple of movies back in the 1990s, both of which received scathing reviews from, well, anyone over the age of ten. In 2017, however, the series will return to the big screen for a very different, more adult take on the franchise.

The movie: Fans of the titular heroes have already taken umbrage with the fact that Power Rangers seems to be taking a lot of liberties with the mythology – for instance, the re-designs of the suits and the very different version of villainess Rita Repulsa (as played by Elizabeth Banks). Once you get past that, however, what we’ve seen of the film so far suggests something much more character-driven that past incarnations.

Yes, it does look a lot like Josh Trank’s terrific found-footage superhero movie Chronicle, but it could still be good enough to warrant some sequels and get a wider audience interested in the long-running franchise again. Plus, it has Bryan Cranston as a floating head in a jar – which is something you can’t say that about a lot of movies.