- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
Although the property has been around for 20 years, the world has never had a “grim” version of the formerly Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers — until now. But while this new take isn’t an officially sanctioned Saban product, that doesn’t mean it’s merely a fan film, as the presence of Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff demonstrates.
Power/Rangers is the work of director Joseph Kahn, repped by Paradigm and Bryan Brucks from Luber Roklin, is a music video director known for independent movies Torque and Detention. He told HitFix that the short isn’t intended as a pitch for a “real” Power Rangers feature, but instead a finished project in and of itself.
Related Stories
“The irony here is that I wouldn’t even want to make Power Rangers: The Movie for real,” he said. “If I had to make a Power Rangers movie, this is it. It’s 14 minutes long and it’s violent and this is what I have in me.”
Power/Rangers is produced by Adi Shankar, the man behind similar unofficial shorts The Punisher: Dirty Laundry and Venom: Truth in Journalism, as well as the movies The Grey, Dredd and A Walk Among the Tombstones.
It was Shankar who brought the cast onboard, Kahn explained. “The first person I thought of to play the main role was Katee Sackoff, and she signed onboard because Adi happened to know her,” he said. “Then when I was looking for her nemesis, it was Adi who pitched [James Van Der Beek] and I think they’re friends or something.”
The result is something unexpected, but oddly compelling: an alternate world version of the childhood favorite that we’ll likely never see again. Meanwhile, the official Power Rangers movie remains in development for a 2016 release date.
Read more ‘Truth in Journalism’ Short Teases Spider-Man Villain (Video)
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day