This Power Rangers short is Dark, Gritty, and Spectacular

This is “Power/Rangers”, an incredibly dark and gritty take on the beloved children’s show. It is produced by Adi Shankar (Dredd, Lone Survivor, and The Grey) and directed by Joseph Kahn and stars James Van Der Beek.

[dropcap size=small]W[/dropcap]hile the overall tone meant to be satirical, poking fun at movies like Michael Bay’s Transformers, it’s easy to get lost in the 14 minute short, especially if you’ve grown up with the Power Rangers. 

The unfortunate part about this project is that while it shows massive potential to be darker and more violent as a means to reach out to a larger demographic, Khan has been quoted saying he himself has no interest in making a legitimate, large-budget MMPR film.

“The irony here is that I wouldn’t even want to make Power Rangers: The Movie for real. Like 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. If they offered me the $200 million version, the PG-13 version, I literally wouldn’t do it. It’s just not interesting to me.“

Not interesting to him enough to do a full-length feature, but certainly intriguing to many, that part is for sure. However, we do find it curious that he would be involved in this impressive short if he were not interested in Power Rangers to some extent.

Alas, as epic as the short is, it’s probably all we seen from Khan and Shankar on a Power Rangers project. Then again, there still is the actual reboot for the franchise coming to theaters still in the works. Of course they have had some troubles along the way, what with executive Producer Roberto Orci leaving the project. 

In September of last year, Jason David Frank (who played Tommy Oliver in the long running series) shared that he has been approached by studios to be involved in the project to some extent, and that production could happen really soon.

At the time of this writing, all we know at this point is that it is happening, but we do not know with whom will be involved. Though we are expected to see something around the time of the films slated release date of July 22nd, 2016. 

Stay tuned. 

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