New character, story & casting details for Lionsgate’s Power Rangers reboot

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Pictured above is the logo for Lionsgate's POWER RANGERS reboot Collider found while lurking around the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, and there's also a bunch of possible new details on the project from Heroic Hollywood.

Sources tell the site that casting hasn't begun yet for the film, but "it's expected to be all unknown actors for the actual Power Rangers as the studio wants them all to play late teens." HH goes on to say they've heard that Rangers nemesis Rita Repulsa will appear in the reboot, and the site's sources provided a description of the character.

A huntress. A striking, yet subtly alien-looking woman. She carries a metallic staff topped with a distinctive crescent shape. Advances with a soldier’s confidence, guided by some sort of compass… Her staff is actually a device of immense power. She points it at the ground. Heads emerge, built layer upon layer like 3-D printing, made from the earth itself… The staff’s technology grants her the ability to create humanoid figures, soulless and robotic.

Apparently we will be introduced to Rita Repulsa in the prologue of the film, with Rita fighting the cretaceous period's Power Rangers on the last day dinosaurs walked the Earth, and that era's team will be led by Zordon as the Red Ranger. Sources say Zordon may be an alien, but he looks like a man in his 50s, and they also describe him as "Sinewy and strong, as if carved from some root that refused to die."

PROJECT ALMANAC's Dean Israelite will direct POWER RANGERS for Lionsgate, and Israelite gave an update on the project during a recent interview with IGN.

I read the script and was really surprised by it and thought there was a really cool, contemporary, mature but still playful, buoyant and fun take on the material, and was updated in a really interesting way. It had this wonderful character that's essential to going on a fantastic adventure. I was instantly drawn to it. I remember it as a kid. I grew up with it in South Africa. When I opened the script I had no idea how it was going to be updated, and I was really impressed by it. So I put a really big presentation together, because I needed to win the job. There were a lot of guys going out for it and saw the potential in it, so I put a really big presentation together and was lucky enough to get the job. We're in sort of a soft pre-production right now, doing a lot of design work and reimagining the world. It's really cool and exciting.

What are your thoughts on the latest POWER RANGERS news?

POWER RANGERS is scheduled to be released on January 13, 2017.