Power Rangers is an American media franchise built around a superhero television series. The first Power Rangers entry, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, produced by Saban Entertainment, debuted on August 28, 1993. It became a hit, with high viewer ratings and toy sales, and helped not only to establish the franchise but also earned it a place in contemporary pop culture.
The Power Rangers television series adapts characters and footage from the Japanese tokusatsu franchise Super Sentai for Western audiences, while also incorporating its own stories and characters. The original series ran for 30 seasons, which aired from 1993 to 2023, and it has expanded into other media, including theatrical films, comic books, novels and video games. There have been two attempts to revive the franchise for television since 2020 but neither came to fruition.
Despite initial criticism from some parents and media watchdogs that its violent action was unsuitable for a show which was intended to be viewed by children, the franchise has been commercially successful. By 2001, the media franchise had generated over $6 billion in toy sales.
In 2018, Bandai parted ways with Power Rangers, and the franchise was subsequently acquired by American toy company Hasbro. Toei Company handles the brand in certain Asian markets, including Japan. It is also one of the highest-grossing media franchises.
Contents
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' color, 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 color palette of each Power Rangers team changes every series. Only Red and Blue appear in every Ranger team. Other colors and designations also appear throughout the series. A Rangers' color designation also influences their wardrobe throughout the series: civilian clothing often matches Ranger color.
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.
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 the 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. 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.
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.
Like many of Saban Entertainment's 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.
Broadcast and production
Saban Entertainment produced and distributed Power Rangers from 1993 until the end of 2001, with Fox Kids broadcasting the series in the United States until the Fall of 2002. The Walt Disney Company acquired the franchise as part of a larger buyout of Fox Family Worldwide that took place in 2001. Fox Family Worldwide subsequently became ABC Family Worldwide Inc. This buyout also saw Saban Entertainment become BVS Entertainment in 2002, from News Corporation, Fox's parent company, and Haim Saban.
From September 2002, Power Rangers had aired on various Disney-owned networks, including the ABC Kids program block on ABC, the ABC Family and Toon Disney cable networks, and Jetix-branded outlets worldwide. Disney moved production of the franchise from Los Angeles to Studio West in New Zealand after Wild Force ended. Several ABC affiliate broadcasting groups, including Hearst Television, declined to air the series due to the lack of FCC-compliant educational and informational content.
2008's Power Rangers Jungle Fury was originally set to be the final season, but due to obligations with Bandai, Disney would produce 2009's Power Rangers RPM. An article in The New Zealand Herald published on March 7, 2009, identified RPM as the last season of the Power Rangers run. Production manager Sally Campbell stated in an interview, "...at this stage we will not be shooting another season." A September 1, 2009, revision to Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia by Disney's head archivist Dave Smith states that "production of new episodes [of Power Rangers] ceased in 2009". Production of Power Rangers ceased and the last series by BVS Entertainment, RPM, ended on December 26, 2009.
On October 1, 2009, Bandai released a press release stating that Disney would re-broadcast Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in January 2010 on ABC Kids in lieu of producing a new season. A new toy line accompanied the broadcast and appeared in stores in the later part of 2009.
On May 12, 2010, Haim Saban bought back the Power Rangers franchise from Disney for $43 million and announced plans to produce a new season of the television series. Beginning with the eighteenth season, Samurai (using footage from the 2009 Super Sentai series, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger) the series would be produced under Saban Capital Group's new Saban Brands subsidiary and premiere on Nickelodeon on February 7, 2011. Reruns of previous seasons and episodes would also begin airing on sister channel Nicktoons later that year. In addition to Samurai, Saban announced plans to make a new Power Rangers film.
Television series
The first six seasons (beginning with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and ending with In Space) followed an overarching, evolving storyline. The second season began the annual tradition of the Rangers acquiring new Zords to battle enemies while the core suits from the first season were used, except for that of the White Ranger. With the fourth season, Zeo, Power Rangers began following the Super Sentai series' practice of annual Ranger suit changes.
Although the seventh season, Lost Galaxy, had ties with the preceding season, it was otherwise the first season to follow a self-contained story, as would later seasons of the show up until the seventeenth, RPM. The season also began the tradition of team-up episodes featuring Rangers, villains, and other characters from past seasons. Beginning with the eighteenth season, Samurai, the show returned to a multi-season format similar to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, with self-contained storylines told across two seasons each. The thirtieth season, Cosmic Fury, is a continuation of Dino Fury's story.
According to executive producer Simon Bennett, Cosmic Fury was planned to be the final season set within the canon established since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, with Hasbro instead opting for a franchise reboot; this reboot was originally set to be produced in partnership with Netflix; however, in 2024, Hasbro and Netflix ended their partnership, with the former opting to search for a new creative partner. In December 2024, rumors surfaced that Paramount would be partnering with Hasbro to produce future Power Rangers content. In March 2025, it was announced that Hasbro Entertainment and 20th Television would be producing a new live-action Power Rangers series for Disney+ with Jonathan E. Steinberg & Dan Shotz in talks to serve as writers, showrunners, and executive producers. In early December of 2025, Steinberg and Shotz publicly confirmed that they were developing the new live-action Power Rangers series.
Feature films
Power Rangers has been adapted into three theatrical motion pictures. The first two are distributed by 20th Century Fox, while the third film was released in 2017 by Lionsgate.
In May 2014, Saban Brands and Lionsgate announced that they were planning to produce a new Power Rangers feature film. The film, titled simply Power Rangers, was released on March 24, 2017, to mixed reviews and a low performance at the box office. A fourth Power Rangers film was announced to be developed by Entertainment One and Netflix. On July 11, 2019, during a Reddit AMA, Dacre Montgomery revealed that the studio had plans to produce a second reboot, without him and the rest of the cast and the director returning. On December 13, 2019, it was reported that Jonathan Entwistle is in early talks to direct the reboot, with Patrick Burleigh being set to write the screenplay. The plot will reportedly involve time travel and will be set in the 1990s. These plans were scuttled in 2024, although, in December of the same year, reports surfaced that a new reboot film was being developed by Paramount Pictures in conjunction with Hasbro.
On April 19, 2023, a special film titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always was released. It serves to commemorate the 30th anniversary of both Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the Power Rangers franchise.
Distribution
Power Rangers has long had success in international markets and continues to air in many countries. As of 2006, Power Rangers aired at least 65 times a week in more than 40 worldwide markets. Many markets carry or have carried the series on their respective Fox or later Jetix/Disney XD channels or have syndicated the program on regional children's channels or blocks, either dubbed into the local language or broadcast in the original English. After the 2010 acquisition by Saban Brands, international television distribution rights for Power Rangers have been managed by MarVista Entertainment until 2014. Saban took over international distribution until Hasbro's acquisition.
Broadcast in East Asian territories has been treated differently from in other international markets due to the prevalence and familiarity of 'the Super Sentai brand originating in Japan. Power Rangers was briefly banned in Malaysia for supposedly encouraging the use of drugs because it contained the word "Morphin'" in its title, which could be associated with morphine. The show eventually aired without the offending word. In Japan, many Power Rangers television seasons and films were dubbed into Japanese for television and video with the voice actors often pulled from past Super Sentai casts, leading to the English-dubbed action sequences being "re-dubbed" or "restored" back to Japanese as well. Power Rangers Mystic Force is the latest season to be broadcast in Japan on Toei Channel in January 2014, with another cast voicing the American counterparts. After broadcast of Power Rangers ended in South Korea with Wild Force, Bandai of Korea started airing dubbed Super Sentai series under the 파워레인저 (Power Ranger) brand on JEI TV. Some seasons of Super Sentai broadcast in South Korea have similarly named titles as their American counterparts, such as Power Ranger Dino Thunder for Abaranger in 2007 and Power Ranger S.P.D. in place of Dekaranger.
Home media and streaming
On VHS, 3 million Power Rangers video cassettes had been sold in the United States by early 1994.
As of October 2009, 33 Power Rangers DVD collections have been released in the United States:
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, 1995; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, 1997; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie/Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, 1995, 1997; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (DVD compilation set of both films.)
The Best of the Power Rangers: The Ultimate Rangers, 2003; Buena Vista Home Entertainment (DVD compilation of episodes from five different seasons of Power Rangers. The episodes include "Forever Red" and "White Light" [Tommy's reintroduction as the White Power Ranger]).
Power Rangers Ninja Storm Volumes 1–5, 2003; Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Power Rangers Dino Thunder Volumes 1–5, 2004; Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Power Rangers S.P.D. Volumes 1–5, 2005; Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Power Rangers Mystic Force Volumes 1–3 and 'Dark Wish', 2006; Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Power Rangers Operation Overdrive Volumes 1–5, 2007; Buena Vista Home Entertainment (The release of an entire season for the first time in the US.)
Power Rangers Jungle Fury Volumes 1 & 2, 2008; Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (Volumes 3–5 are only available in the UK.)
Toys
On February 15, 2018, Saban Brands announced that their 25-year partnership with Bandai would end in 2019. 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. 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.
In 2019, Hasbro launched Power Rangers Lightning Collection, a collector line of articulated action figures and other collectibles inspired by characters from the television series, the BOOM! Studios comic books and other media, as well as two toy lines for kids, one designed to promote the Power Rangers Beast Morphers series, and another one focused on preschoolers.
Hasbro has also sublicensed the brand to other companies, such as Threezero and Super7, to produce high-end collectibles.
In 2024, Playmates Toys signed an agreement with Hasbro to produce toys based on the Power Rangers brand, starting with a kid-targeted Mighty Morphin Power Rangers product line, scheduled to release in 2025. During an earnings call, Hasbro's CEO Chris Cocks explained that the brand was chosen to be outsourced to Playmates due to low profitability.
Comics
Power Rangers has had several series of comics over the years.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Hamilton Comics, 1994–1995.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Marvel Comics, 1995–1996.
Power Rangers Zeo, Image Comics, 1996.
Power Rangers Turbo, Saban Powerhouse, 1997.
Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Disney Adventures, 2003.
Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Tokyopop, 2003–2004.
Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Jetix, 2003.
Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Tokyopop, 2004.
Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Jetix Magazine, 2004.
Power Rangers S.P.D., Jetix Magazine, 2005.
Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Jetix Magazine, 2007.
Power Rangers Super Samurai, Papercutz, 2012.
Power Rangers Megaforce, Papercutz, 2013.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Papercutz, 2014.
In 2015, Boom! Studios won the Power Rangers comics license, which brought a lot of award-winning publications.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, BOOM! Studios, 2016–2020, 2022–2024.
Books
In June 2018, Penguin Random House released Alien Encounters in Angel Grove, an encyclopedia of creatures from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, written by Gabriel P. Cooper.
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.
In May 2025, Force of Chaos, a young adult novel focused on Trini Kwan, from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, was published by Amulet Books. It was written by Diana Ma. A second novel, titled Shatter the Universe, was released on May 19, 2026.
Parodies
The franchise has been parodied by many sectors of popular media along the years.
GTA V: The game features a fictitious animated show named "Kung Fu Rainbow Lazerforce" as a series in the in-game television program.
"Sour Rangers", the parody series of the Power Rangers from Annoying Orange.
British professional wrestling promotion All Star Wrestling featured multiple wrestlers performing under masks as the "Power Restlin' Rangers" on their shows in 1995.