We didn’t think it was possible to make Power Rangers this dark and gory.
More: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie dream cast
But director Joseph Kahn — whose other credits include Taylor Swift‘s “Blank Space” and a ton of celeb music videos — has done just that with the help of Dawson’s Creek‘s James Van Der Beek and Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackoff. Pair them with some serious blood and lots of naked women and you have a futuristic Power Rangers titled Power/Rangers that is far from kid-appropriate.
The short film feels like a feature with crazy special effects and fighting stunts that should come from an R-rated feature on the big screen rather than a YouTube video done purely for exhibition.
The film was sure to make a point to say Power/Rangers is “not a pilot, not a series, not for profit,” calling itself, “a bootleg experiment.”
More: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie has a release date, but no director
The short tells the story of the grown-up heroes who haven’t been very heroic since their days of saving the planet from the evil alien race led by Rita. In fact, the story opens with Rocky the Red Ranger (Van Der Beek) who has betrayed the Rangers and kidnapped Kimberly the Pink Ranger (Sackoff), who is one of the last rangers alive.
As the film unfolds, we discover what led to the untimely deaths of our childhood heroes and it isn’t a pretty picture. The gritty plot just keeps getting darker until a pretty serious twist at the end.
Check out the short film below.
Producer Adi Shankar said the inspiration for the film came because, as a child, his favorite series was Power Rangers and he wanted to be a Power Ranger until he realized “high school kids weaponized to fight an intergalactic threat would turn those kids into some seriously disturbed adults.”
And while this film is purely a fan film, Lionsgate has announced that it is planning a big screen reboot of the franchise, which will reimagine the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. According to E! Online, however, the Lionsgate reboot won’t stray far from the original premise of the show, following a group of high schoolers gifted with superpowers. In other words, you’re looking at a PG rating here. At most a PG-13 rating, but don’t hold your breath, people. The only place you’ll see the blood and nudity of Power/Rangers is on YouTube.
Would you watch a feature-length film reboot of Power Rangers if it were as gritty as the short film?
More Stories from Entertainment
Leave a Comment