Who knew that a Power Rangers fan film gritty reboot or bootleg as the producer Adi Shankar likes to call it would cause such an uproar in the past couple of days and go viral? Adi Shankar basically said he was a fan of the Might Morphin Power Rangers show growing up and always wanted to be one. But then started to realize these are just teenagers and we never really see the repercussions of teens fighting intergalactic wars and how it could have an effect on them.
Director Joseph Kahn who has directed music videos from all types of artists ranging from New Edition to Blink 182 and even a couple of movies Detention and Torque lent his visionary experience to the short film. Mixing the ideas of Adi and the vision of Joseph ended up giving you a gritty, bloody interpretation of life after being a Power Ranger.
If you are any type of Power Ranger fan from back in the day you might have an idea where this story is birthed from. It takes place after the events of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and during the events of Power Rangers Zeo. The Machine Empire is referenced throughout the film as they were the main villains through that Zeo series.
The casting for this is an entertaining mix as you have James Van Der Beek as Rocky(the 2nd Red Ranger), Katee Sackhoff – Kimberly(Pink Ranger), Russ Bain – Tommy(Green Ranger), and Gichi Gamba – Zack(Black Ranger). Jason David Frank who still portrays Tommy either at comic cons, dream super battles online or occasionally showing on a Power Rangers episode says he was originally approached to do the role and turned it down as it’s too dark a film and not a good representation of Power Rangers and should be kept in a PG-13 light. You can hear about that here.
Saban also has been trying to get the short film pulled off the face of the internet as they feel its copyright infringements and messes with their intellectual property. As its been pulled off Vimeo and put back up on YouTube by Adi Shankar.
Remember don’t give anyone money to download POWER/RANGERS short. I made it to give to you for free. You deserve nice things.
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) February 25, 2015
Let us know what you think of the short film, Saban trying to shut it down and if you would like to see the Power Rangers 2016 done this way or anywhere near it
