On May 26th, 2016 Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said they were interested in doing “ five or six or seven” Power Rangers movies. Obviously this wasn’t anything major, there aren’t scripts or even outlines locked for six sequels. Everyone who makes a movie in this day and age wants to make a lot of sequels. But that doesn’t take away the possibility that the film could be enough of a commercial success to garner at least one or two sequels. While seven is being optimistic, it’s not impossible. Hit or miss franchises like X-Men and Fast and Furious have had more than that. So let’s take a realistic look at six possible Power Rangers movie sequels and spin-offs.
Lord Zedd and the Green Ranger
Starting with the most obvious one here. Now I know the Green Ranger was always a Season 1 thing and Zedd was always a Season 2 thing but realistically speaking you’re going to need an actual villain for a Green Ranger story. While Tommy was the final battle of the Green With Evil arc, a movie made these days would have that as the midpoint and then they’d go off after a mutual enemy. Zedd would be the logical option there as he’s a more iconic villain.
Thunder Power and The White Ranger
Dinosaurs may be iconic, but sometimes change is for the better (especially considering the movie zords already don’t look exactly like their respective dinosaurs.) A destruction or upgrade of the zords could lead to lots of exciting opportunities, and would set a perfect backdrop for the appearance of the White Ranger, and maybe even Master Vile.
Dark Rangers
There are plenty of rumors going around about killing off and replacing characters to make way for Adam, Rocky, Aisha, and Kat. If this movie is a hit I sincerely doubt they’re going to replace characters just because the show had to do it. However, I could see a Civil War esque sorta deal with a new team of evil rangers made up of the aforementioned replacements (not sure what to do about Blue…) as a sort of Dark/Shadow/Evil Ranger storyline. If Rita is an ancient Green Ranger, they could be the rest of her team, possibly even drawing from SPD’s A-Squad plot. There’s also the ever popular Psycho Rangers arc to draw from.
The Machine Empire
I am taking these Zeo crystal rumors with a truckload of salt. I don’t really see them completely changing the franchise’s look, even if the suits and zords already look completely different. Giving the Rangers a fleet of Egyptian shape zords may not be in their plan, but I could see them pulling The Machine Empire in as a new set of villains. Rita seems to want personal revenge, Zedd could want to rule or enslave, but the Machine Empire could bring some Star Wars vibes with their imperialistic approach to world domination. I personally couldn’t see Squat, Baboo, or even Rito in the universe that Lionsgate has created, but King Mondo and his large royal family would translate perfectly.
Ninja Power and Master Vile
This is the kind of thing I could see happening after a few sequels and the cast starts changing over, like the Wolverine movies. I really don’t see Lionsgate wanting to go ninja in the coming future, and they may want to avoid reminding audiences of the ‘95 movie. What I could see is Master Vile as a sort of Space Shogun who leads an army of alien ninjas, and the Rangers meet some local karate kids or even travel to Japan for one reason or another. There could be Alien/Ninja Rangers that draw from both Aquitar and Dulcea storylines. Maybe even have Ninjor show up as Japanesey member of Alpha’s “species.” It would be about as weird as the Samurai Transformer we got a few years ago. I could see a ninja themed movie before the Rangers themselves get ninja powers.
Bonus
Due to brand recognition, we’re going to get dinosaurs and Zordon long before we ever shift into turbo or go galactic. And when you take away the Green and White and Dark and Alien and Ninja Rangers, there is only one thing standing in the way of a time travelling “meet your ancestors and get a crystal shard” quest:
The Wild West Rangers. Because why not at this point?
I would love a Guardians of the Galaxy inspired In Space movie, a Jet Li style Jungle Fury, or a Time Force that actually traveled through time. But honestly I think fans are onto something when they say the original needs updated. MMPR was a lot of filler with the occasional brilliant arc Frankensteined from multiple Sentais on a shoestring budget, so those are the stories that need to be retold more. An SPD or Lightspeed Rescue movie would only be retellings of stories that were done right the first time, but with better effects and set pieces. We don’t NEED to see RPM remade, but a Serpentera kept running out of power before it could do anything so let’s see that in a movie. If we’re going to get sequels and spin-offs, grimdark or cheesy, let’s not ask for more of what we already have, but a better look at what we never got.