Power Rangers (TV Series)

Power Rangers is an American multimedia franchise created by Haim Saban and Toei Company.
==Origins==
In 1975, an English-subtitled version of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger had been broadcast in Hawaii and California. In 1978, an English-dub of the show titled Star Rangers aired in the Philippines. In 1987, a group of Canadian comedians called the "The Kids In The Hall” had dubbed over footage of Kagaku Sentai Dynaman to hilarious affect. The six-episode series, simply titled Dynaman aired on the Adult Swim programming block Night Flight. Although these were one of the first exposures of Super Sentai to the United States, they are not viewed as official installments of the franchise that had yet to come.
The idea of adapting Sentai in America emerged in the late 1970s after Toei Company and Marvel came to an agreement to exchange source material and adapt them for their respective audiences. With Marvel's cooperation, Toei created an highly successful adaptation of Spider-Man to which its use of a giant robot was later implemented into Battle Fever J. Stan Lee had been impressed with Toei's adaptation of Spider-Man and attempted to sell an idea of an Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan adaptation to American television stations. Most of them, including Margaret Loesch, the head of Marvel's TV division at the time, turned him down citing reasons being that it was "hilarious."
During a business trip to Japan in the 1980s, Haim Saban had watched Choudenshi Bioman in his hotel room and became fascinated in the idea of multi-colored spandex superheroes defeating rubber monsters. Learning that a French-language dub of the show had existed in France on the channel Canal+, Saban realized the potential of an American adaptation and adopted an idea not dissimilar to Lee's. The process of doing so was not a simple dub-over, but rather done by splicing the original Japanese footage in varying ratios with newly filmed scenes featuring primarily English-speaking actors. With Shuki Levy, Saban successfully created the Bio-Man pilot and pitched it to several of America's largest television networks, all whom declined the idea. It was not until 1992 when Margaret Loesch, who was head of FOX Kids at the time, had noticed the similarity of the pitch Saban had submitted to the one Stan Lee had years ago. Agreeing to go forward with the idea, an initial deal of 52 episodes was struck with FOX. They purchased the rights to Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger from Toei, and a partnership with Bandai America was established to create merchandizing.
Each show was produced and distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1993 until the end of 2001 and was broadcast on the Fox Kids Network. At the end of 2001, when Power Rangers Wild Force was in early production, Power Rangers and Saban Entertainment were taken over by Disney, who renamed Saban Entertainment into Buena Vista Entertainment. However, the show continued to air on Fox until Fox Kids was closed down in the middle of Wild Force's run. The remainder of the series and all subsequent series have aired on various Disney-owned stations up until the end of 2009. After Power Rangers RPM finished, first season episodes of Mighty Morphin were rerun on ABC Kids with footage restored to better quality, some scenes cut from the original episodes, and comic-book style graphics added.
In 2011, after Saban re-acquired the franchise, episodes of older series such as Jungle Fury and Dino Thunder were aired.
On May 12, 2010, Saban Brands bought the Power Rangers franchise including all world wide rights and property from the Walt Disney Company, and entered a partnership with Nickelodeon to air Power Rangers Samurai in 2011. The same year as Samurai was being produced, reruns of Jungle Fury and Dino Thunder were broadcast during hiatus periods going into Power Rangers Super Samurai in 2012. In celebration of the franchise's 20th anniversary, Power Rangers Megaforce and Power Rangers Super Megaforce were aired as part of the Power Rangers 20 event, with historic rangers making appearances in Super Megaforce. In 2015 and 2016, Power Rangers Dino Charge and Power Rangers Dino Super Charge were aired, marking the first time PR had skipped Sentai seasons for a more recent entry. In 2017 and 2018, Power Rangers Ninja Steel and Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel was aired, adapting Shuriken Sentai Ninninger and skipping over Ressha Sentai ToQger.
On February 12, 2018, Saban Brands renewed their partnership with Nickelodeon through 2021, and sold the franchise rights to Hasbro later that year for $522 million. After Hasbro's takeover, Saban laid off many of their employees and shut down on July 2, 2018, while a select amount of employees (including Chip Lynn) transferred to Hasbro - with Haim Saban serving in a advising capacity for the franchise going forward.. After Super Ninja Steel's end, Hasbro adapted Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters into two seasons of Power Rangers Beast Morphers in 2019 and 2020, marking the first time that a previously skipped-over season was revisited and adapted, meaning that adaptations would not be entirely ruled out for seasons that had been, for the time being, skipped over. In early 2020, Hasbro announced they were set to adapt Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger into Power Rangers Dino Fury to air in 2021, skipping over Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, Uchu Sentai Kyuranger and Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger. Due to the end of Nickelodeon's contract with the series, the second season of Dino Fury debuted on Netflix instead, with later seasons including Power Rangers Cosmic Fury premiering on the platform as well.
Hasbro then announced that Power Rangers Dino Fury would receive a third season titled Power Rangers Cosmic Fury due to its critical and financial hit, and commemorate the 30th anniversary of the franchise. Cosmic Fury was later announced to be adapting only the Zords and villains from Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, while the Rangers themselves would don suits of Hasbro's original design to fully utilize their recent capabilities of filming as much original on-ground fight footage as possible without a heavy reliance on Sentai footage. The 10-episode limited series premiered worldwide exclusively on Netflix, September 29, 2023.
=== The Wilkins Era ===
The Andy Wilkins era of Power Rangers began in 2025 with a move of filming production.
==Premise==
Since Power Rangers derives most of its footage from the Super Sentai series, it features many hallmarks that distinguish it from other superhero series. Each series revolves around a team of youths recruited and trained by a mentor to morph into the eponymous Power Rangers, able to use special powers and pilot immense assault machines, called Zords, to overcome the periodic antagonists. In the original series Mighty Morphin, the wizard Zordon recruits "teenagers with attitude" against Rita Repulsa.
When "morphed," the rangers become powerful superheroes wearing color-coded skin-tight spandex suits and helmets with opaque visors; identical except in individual rangers' colour, helmet design, and minor styling such as incorporating a skirt. Morphed Rangers generally possess enhanced strength, durability, agility and combat prowess. Some possess superhuman or psychic abilities such as super-speed, element manipulation, extra-sensory perception or invisibility. In addition, each individual ranger has a unique weapon, as well as common weaponry used for ground fighting. When enemies grow to incredible size (as nearly all do), Rangers use individual Zords that combine into a larger Megazord.
Rangers teams operate in teams of three to five, with more Rangers joining the team later. Each team of Rangers, with a few exceptions, obeys a general set of conventions, outlined at the beginning of Mighty Morphin and implied by mentors throughout many of the other series: Power Rangers may not use their Ranger powers for personal gain or for escalating a fight (unless the enemy does so), nor may the Power Rangers disclose their identities to the general public. The penalty for disobeying these rules is the loss of their power.
As in Super Sentai, the colour palette of each Power Rangers team changes every series. Only Red and Blue appear in every Ranger team. Other colours and designations also appear throughout the series. A Rangers' colour designation also influences their wardrobe throughout the series: civilian clothing often matches Ranger colour.
==List of Power Rangers Episodes==
===Regular Episodes===
Season	Series Name 	Episodes	Original airdates 	Original airdates 	Average Viewers
(Millions) UK
Season	Series Name 	Episodes	First Aired 	Last Aired 	Average Viewers
(Millions) UK
1 	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 	60 	28th August 1993 	23rd May 1994 	
2 	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 	52 	21st July 1994 	20th May 1995 	
3 	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 	33 	2nd September 1995 	27th November 1995 	
3.5 	Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 	10 	5th February 1996 	17th February 1996 	
3.5 	Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers 	10 	5th February 1996 	17th February 1996 	
4 	Power Rangers Zeo 	50 	20th April 1996 	23rd November 1996 	
5 	Power Rangers Turbo 	45 	19th April 1997 	24th November 1997 	
6 	Power Rangers In Space 	43 	6th February 1998 	21st November 1998 	
7 	Power Rangers Lost Galaxy 	45 	6th February 1999 	18th December 1999 	
8 	Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue 	40 	12th February 2000 	18th November 2000 	
9 	Power Rangers Time Force 	40 	3rd February 2001 	17th November 2001 	
10 	Power Rangers Wild Force 	40 	9th February 2002 	16th November 2002 	
11 	Power Rangers Ninja Storm 	38 	15th February 2003 	15th November 2003 	
12 	Power Rangers Dino Thunder 	38 	7th February 2004 	20th November 2004 	
13 	Power Rangers SPD 	38 	5th February 2005 	14th November 2005 	
14 	Power Rangers Mystic Force 	32 	20th February 2006 	13th November 2006 	
15 	Power Rangers Operation Overdrive	26 	26th February 2007 	12th November 2007 	
16 	Power Rangers Jungle Fury 	32 	18th February 2008 	3rd November 2008 	
17 	Power Rangers RPM 	32 	7th March 2009 	26th December 2009 	
18 	Power Rangers Samurai 	22 	7th February 2011 	8th October 2011 	
19 	Power Rangers Super Samurai 	22 	18th February 2012 	8th December 2012 	
20 	Power Rangers Megaforce 	22 	2nd February 2013 	7th December 2013 	
21 	Power Rangers Super Megaforce 	20 	15th February 2014 	22nd November 2014 	
22 	Power Rangers Dino Charge 	22 	7th February 2015 	12th December 2015 	
23 	Power Rangers Super Dino Charge 	22 	30th January 2016 	10th December 2016 	
24 	Power Rangers Ninja Steel 	22 	21st January 2017 	1st December 2017 	
25 	Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel 	22 	27th January 2018 	1st December 2018 	
26 	Power Rangers Beast Morphers 	22 	2nd March 2019 	12th December 2020 	
27 	Power Rangers Beast Morphers 	22 	2nd March 2019 	12th December 2020 	
28 	Power Rangers Dino Fury 	22 	20th February 2021 	29th September 2022	
29 	Power Rangers Dino Fury 	22 	20th February 2021 	29th September 2022	
30 	Power Rangers Cosmic Fury 	10 	29th September 2023	 	
31 	Power Rangers Train Force 	15 	March 2025 	June 2025 	
32 	Power Rangers Animal Universe 	15 	October 2025 	November 2025 	
33 	Power Rangers Galaxy Hunters 	10 	March 2026 	May 2026 	
34 	Power Rangers Treasure Secrets 	12 	September 2026 	November 2026 	
35 	Power Rangers Crystal Worlds 	12 	March 2027 	May 2027 	
36 	Power Rangers Universal Gears 	12 	August 2027 	October 2027 	
37 	Power Rangers Avatar Warriors 	12 	February 2028 	May 2028 	
38 	Power Rangers Kings 	15 	August 2028 	December 2028 	
39 	Power Rangers Turbo Legacy 	15 	August 2029 	December 2029 	
===Specials===
Season 	Episode Title 	Original airdates	Original airdates	Average Viewers
(Millions) UK
Season 	Episode Title 	First Aired 	Last Aired 	Average Viewers
(Millions) UK
Animal Universe	Power Rangers Wild Force: Unity Of The Animals 	May 2026 	May 2026 	
Animal Universe	Power Rangers: Wild Force vs Ninja Storm 	November 2026 	November 2026 	
Animal Universe	Power Rangers: Super Megaforce vs Beast Morphers	March 2027 	March 2027 	
Crystal Worlds 	Power Rangers Turbo: Back In Gear 	November 2026 	November 2026 	
Crystal Worlds 	Power Rangers Turbo: A New Era 	November 2026 	November 2026 	
Crystal Worlds 	Power Rangers Turbo vs Zeo: Legacy Of Tommy 	November 2026 	November 2026 	
Avatar Warriors	Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Return Of The Storm 	February 2028 	February 2028 	
 	 	February 2028 	February 2028 	
 	 	February 2028 	February 2028 	
==Home Media Release==
To be added
==Footnotes==