It is probably a pretty good time to be a Power Rangers fan.  Next month, the long-awaited movie reboot of Power Rangers is coming to the big screen and, after the last epic trailer landed online, it really got people feeling optimistic about Lionsgate's new take on the material.  It turns out that isn't the only new take on the Power Rangers that is in the works, because Adi Shankar is developing a new R-rated series based on the original show. 

The news comes courtesy of Polygon, who recently talked with Adi Shankar about this dark, Power Rangers Animated Reboot he is working on.  According to the report, the show will be influenced by Dragonball Z and will reimagine the first three seasons of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  Here is what Adi Shankar had to say about it. 

"It's a complete retelling of the first three seasons.  And it's going to be really f*****g dark.  Darker than any other Power Rangers series." 

For those who may not be familiar with Adi Shankar, he is known for doing very cinematic fan films.  Punisher: Dirty Laundry, which brought back Thomas Jane as Frank Castle, was arguably the most faithful adaptation of The Punisher we'd seen prior to Daredevil season 2, which featured Jon Bernthal as the character.  Interestingly enough, Bernthal cited Dirty Laundry as research for his take on The Punisher.  But Adi Shankar's biggest hit to date was Power/Rangers, a live-action, gritty, violent reimagining of the franchise that featured Katee Sackhoff and James Van Der Beek.  The short went viral and was praised by fans, but he ran into some rights issues, which shouldn't come as a big surprise.  Still, he has proven he knows how to do a gritty version of Power Rangers. 

It was recently announced that Adi Shankar is doing an animated Castlevania series for Netflix.  If he has his way, that is where he is hoping to have his new Power Rangers animated series wind up.  Netflix hasn't commented on it, but Shankar praised the streaming service and feels like they are the right place for the series. 

"Netflix is doing what every other network should be doing.  I've worked with almost every network and Netflix just gets it.  The world we live in now has disrupted the idea of what entertainment is and Netflix gets it.  If you look at what shows are like today, they're long movies.  It's a format paradigm and I want to explore creating these types of new shows with Power Rangers.  We're going to focus on the beats of what made each show great and turn that into one, entirely new Power Rangers series,"

There is no word on when this new, super dark Power Rangers show will premiere, or where it will premiere for that matter, but Adi Shankar is hard at work on it.  He is currently writing the scripts for the first season and said he hopes to have the series launch within the next 18 months.  So, if all goes well, fans could be getting a solid new Power Rangers movie this year and a gritty, animated Power Rangers series next year.