A New Power Rangers movie has been announced – Here’s what we hope to see.

2017’s Power Rangers movie adaptation was a surprise hit. Well, it was with this jaded, cynical longtime fan anyway. Though it was released to middling reviews and didn’t perform all-too-well at the box office, the Saban and Lionsgate-produced blockbuster did a great job at bringing the tried-and-true formula of 5 teenagers with attitude to the modern age of the big screen. The right amount of cheese was trimmed off, with the final product being a satisfying action romp with angsty costumed teens kicking monster butt and plenty of exposition from a giant head in a wall.

The film came and went, with audiences enjoying it to varying degrees, but it didn’t have much of a lasting impact. The franchise and fans moved on, and despite plans for an entire movie franchise, hope for a follow-up was dim due to the overall reaction to the film.

Fast forward to 2018, and Hasbro now owns the rights to Power Rangers. Fans rejoice, parties are thrown and a sequel to the movie has been announced. It’s all speculation at this point, so I’d like to take this chance to throw down my cards of what I personally would love to see (and what I wouldn’t).

THINGS I WANT TO SEE

New powers. New team. New villain.

The Power Rangers’ long-standing tradition of shifting to a new wardrobe began with the second series, Zeo. It wasn’t until In Space that the show made the leap to a completely new cast, a change that would occur within every season that followed. While the original Mighty Morphin team remained somewhat consistent up to the halfway point of Turbo, a new set of faces every once in a while brought about more opportunities for character development from scratch, team dynamics and most importantly of all; merchandise.

While I really enjoyed the team from the movie and would be happy to see them continue their adventures, I feel like it could get messy if they were to go down the most likely route and get a new set of powers with each sequel. I think once is fine (as we saw in Zeo) but I think it would be for the best if the current team were to hand off their powers to the next generation, with the new candidates already being established characters beforehand. That’s how they did it in the earlier days of the show, where the replacement Rangers showed up a couple of episodes before the switch so we’d get to know them a bit first.

Rita Repulsa is a great villain, but a sequel is all about escalation so it would only make sense to up the ante in terms of who the Rangers are going to be facing off against. Lord Zedd? King Mondo? Astronema? Lord Drakkon? There’s a wide range of possibilities but I imagine that if they’re planning a number of sequels to milk this cash cow with, they’ll continue with a steady incline of villains, ramping up the threat level with each film.

Keep the cheese, but don’t overdo it.

The movie adaptation managed to capture the over-the-top choreographed fights and childlike wonder and awe of the series, while also dialing it back a bit so it didn’t become overbearing. Later seasons of the show did the same thing, putting forth a more grounded plot and characters while retaining the same atmosphere that let you immediately know that it was still Power Rangers. The seasons that managed to do it best were In Space, Timeforce, and RPM, all of which had well-written characters with story arcs that spanned the series and (mostly) got wrapped up with a satisfying conclusion.

More nods to the series legacy

Having subtle jokes, references or hints to the 25 year legacy of the series would go a long way towards showing that the people making the film are fans, or at least show that they know their stuff and can put their money where their mouth is when it comes to Rangers. While I wouldn’t like the film to be overstuffed with constant references and set-up for future installments (not to name names), a couple here and there would be great. Maybe Tommy could have a moment of reflection where he ponders what his future as a villain would be like (a-la Lord Drakkon), or one of the characters could mention that the world will probably still be under threat in the year 3000 (Timeforce).

Less Obnoxious Product Placement

One of the biggest downsides to the 2017 movie was its excessive product placement, particularly that of Krispy Kreme. While in-movie advertising and product placement can work wonders for the funding of your movie, some felt that the way it was used in the film went too far, especially with it being directly tied to the plot. Seriously, the villain’s plan involved digging around a Krispy Kreme to make her monster, even stopping for a bite to eat.

I don’t have very high expectations if I’m being honest, given how sequels to under-performing movies often do just as, if not more poorly than their predecessors but as a fan of the franchise, I still have a glimmer of hope. If the upcoming sequel can manage to retain the fun atmosphere while still maintaining a more grounded and serious universe with likable characters and badass monster fights, then it has the potential to be very morphinomenal indeed.