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

### Specials

 Animal Universe | Power Rangers Wild Force: Unity Of The Animals | May 2026