Power Rangers
Power Rangers is an entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise Super Sentai. Produced first by Saban Entertainment, second by BVS Entertainment, later by Saban Brands, and today by SCG Power Rangers LLC and its parent company, Hasbro, the Power Rangers television series takes much of its footage from the Super Sentai television series, produced by Toei Company.[1] The first Power Rangers entry, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, debuted on August 28, 1993, and helped launch the Fox Kids programming block of the 1990s, during which it catapulted into popular culture along with a line of action figures and other toys by Bandai.[2] By 2001, the media franchise had generated over $6 billion in toy sales.[3]
For other uses, see Power Rangers (disambiguation).Power Rangers
Haim Saban
Shuki Levy
Shotaro Ishinomori (Genre Concept)
Super Sentai (1975–present)
- Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (1992–1993)
Toei Company (1993–present) (costumes, props and footage)
Saban Entertainment (1993–2001)
The Walt Disney Company (2001–2010)
Saban Brands (2010–2018)
Hasbro (2018–present)
1993–present
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (Original Soundtrack Album)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Album – A Rock Adventure
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Power Rangers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Despite initial criticism that its action violence targeted child audiences, the franchise has been commercially successful. As of 2023, Power Rangers consists of 30 television seasons of 22 different themed series, three theatrical films released in 1995, 1997, and 2017 and a television special released in 2023.
In 2010, Haim Saban, creator of the series, regained ownership of the franchise. It was previously owned for eight years by The Walt Disney Company. In 2018, Hasbro was named the new master toy licensee. Shortly afterwards, Saban Brands and Hasbro announced that the latter would acquire the franchise and the rest of the former's entertainment assets in a $522 million deal, with the first products from Hasbro becoming available in early 2019.[4][5]In 2024, Hasbro & Playmates have announced a global licensing agreement to produce new Power Rangers toys in 2025.[6][7]
History
Adapting the Super Sentai series
The idea of adapting Sentai series for America emerged in the late 1970s after the agreement between Toei Company and Marvel Comics to exchange concepts to adapt them to their respective audiences. Toei, with Marvel Productions, created the Japanese Spider-Man television series, and produced three Super Sentai series, which had great success in Japan. Marvel and Stan Lee tried to sell the Sun Vulcan series to American television stations including HBO, but found no buyers and the agreement ended.[10][11]
Several years later, another idea to adapt Super Sentai began in the 1980s when Haim Saban made a business trip to Japan, in which, during his stay at the hotel, the only thing that was being transmitted on his television was the Japanese series Choudenshi Bioman. At that time, Saban was fascinated by the concept of five people masked in spandex suits fighting monsters, so in 1985, he produced the pilot episode of Bio-Man, an American adaptation of Choudenshi Bioman, which was rejected by several of the largest American television stations.[12][13] His idea only took off in 1992, as Saban came to Fox Kids, whose president Margaret Loesch had previously helmed Marvel Productions and thus was familiar with Super Sentai.[14]
Production of Power Rangers episodes involves extensive localization of and revision of original Super Sentai source material to incorporate American culture and conform to American television standards. Rather than making an English dub or translation of the Japanese footage, Power Rangers programs consist of scenes featuring English-speaking actors spliced with scenes featuring either Japanese actors dubbed into English or the action scenes from the Super Sentai Series featuring the Rangers fighting monsters or the giant robot (Zord and Megazord) battles with English dubbing. In some series, original fight scenes are filmed to incorporate characters or items unique to the Power Rangers production.[15] Like many of Saban Entertainment previous ventures in localizing Japanese television for a Western audience, the plot, character names, and other names usually differ greatly from the source footage, though a few seasons have stayed close to the story of the original Super Sentai season. The American arm of Bandai, who co-produced the Sentai shows and manufactured its toys, worked with the adaptation of the Japanese names. A brainstorming among executives led to "Power Rangers", and for the specific show that would be made, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, evoking the transformation sequences. The meeting also brought up the term "Zord" for the giant robots, to invoke both the sword that the Megazord carried, and the dinosaurs that were the team's theme.[14] Along with adapting the villains from the Super Sentai counterparts, most Power Rangers series also feature villains with no Sentai counterpart. Generally, the primary antagonist of a Power Rangers series (for example, Lord Zedd, Divatox, etc.) are not adapted from the Sentai. Exceptions to this includes Zeo, Lightspeed Rescue and a few others which only use villains adapted from the Japanese shows.
The franchise began with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (an American adaptation of the 1992 Japanese Super Sentai Series, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger), which began broadcasting as part of the Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids programming block.[16]
In honour of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' broadcast premiere, Hasbro announced "National Power Rangers Day" to be celebrated annually on August 28, 2018.[17][18]
Toys
On February 15, 2018, Saban Brands announced that their 25-year partnership with Bandai would end in 2019.[106] The next day, it was confirmed that Hasbro would be the new "global master toy licensee" for the franchise starting in April 2019, with a future option for Hasbro to buy the entire franchise.[107] Hasbro paid $22.25 million upon the toy contract's closure. When they acquired the franchise as a whole later that year, that amount was credited against the purchase price paid to Saban for the series and related assets.[108]
Hasbro has since sublicensed some toy rights to companies including Threezero[109] and Super7.[110]
Power Rangers has had several series of comics over the years.
In 2015, Boom! Studios won the Power Rangers comics license, which brought a lot of award-winning publications.
Books
In November 2018, Insight Editions released Power Rangers: The Ultimate Visual History, detailing the various toys and television seasons over the franchise's 25-year run.[111]
The franchise has been parodied by many sectors of popular media along the years.