Netflix’s Power Rangers Cinematic Universe Would’ve Focused on Tommy Oliver

New details about the planned Power Rangers Cinematic Universe on Netflix have come to light a year after the project was scrapped.

In 2019, it was reported that Jonathan Entwistle was in talks to direct a film reboot of the Power Rangers franchise, with Patrick Burleigh set to write the screenplay. Three years later, in 2022, Jenny Klein was tapped by Netflix, Hasbro, and Entertainment One to serve as showrunner on a new Power Rangers series. Entwistle was also stated to be involved with the series, with the plan being for the film and series to be part of the same universe. However, in June 2024, it was reported that the planned shared universe had been scrapped at Netflix.

What do we know about the scrapped Power Rangers Cinematic Universe?

Now, during a recent Reddit AMA to promote his new movie Karate Kid: Legends, Entwistle has opened up about what his take on the Power Rangers franchise would have encompassed. “I was working on Power Rangers waaaay back in 2018 when it was at Paramount. I was writing a movie version. Then Hasbro bought eOne and it was all shaken up again, the movie was shelved and then a TV series became the new focus,” the filmmaker explained.

He continued, “I started work on that, mapping out how that could work with multiple movies, shows and animations – we worked closely with Netflix on all of that. And then eOne was no more and the whole concept of the show and movies just got lost in that shuffle. It really sucks because it was such a cool approach, Star Wars level, but I think Hasbro just couldn’t get everyone behind the same approach.”

Entwistle later divulged that his take on Power Rangers wouldn’t have been a remake of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, but would have taken a multiverse approach to the franchise, with fan-favorite character Tommy Oliver as “the center of the world,” explaining that “all the mythology was surrounding him being one of the most important people in the universe… because we all know what he would become. So it was basically a time-bending HUGE story about stopping Drakkon from taking power over everything.”

He also shared that the Netflix series “had a kind of really cool King Arthur-vibe, that was the angle, more mystical, magical to start us off. Jenny Klein who was writing that show also came up with a very very cool idea for sentient colors… but alas, it never went anywhere. Which sucks, I would’ve LOVED to have made that universe a reality!”

While Entwistle and Klein’s Power Rangers Universe is seemingly dead, the franchise will live on. A new live-action series is currently in development for Disney+, with Percy Jackson showrunners Jonathan E. Steinberg & Dan Shotz in talks to serve as writers, showrunners, and executive producers. A new film is also rumored to be in development at Paramount with a late 2026 release date in mind.

The 2017 Power Rangers movie and select seasons of the long-running show are currently streaming on Netflix.

This story was originally published on SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net