Let me ask you, fans of The Power Rangers, do you remember a time when every bit mattered? When an episode of Mighty Mophin' and an episode of Lightspeed Rescue could be so far removed-and yet-still existed within the same canon? Between the 1st and 10th season of "Power Rangers", the events of each series existed in the same world, just as the Marvel Cinematic Universe would do decades later. And it all cultivated in "Forever Red" from Wild Force. Then? Well, the rest is history. But not the history we fans deserved.
Amit Bhuamik was a screenwriter for Power Rangers, specifically Time Force, Wild Force, and then later Samurai and Megaforce. Fans of Power Rangers may remember the two-part special episode "Forever Red" from Wild Force where almost every Red Ranger-sorry Rocky-from previous Ranger shows teamed up to fight The Machine Empire. While team-ups happen within every season between Ranger teams, a team-up on this scale was very impressive. To collect all these actors who walked away from the franchise for an anniversary and celebration of Power Rangers, and to have it be good? Very impressive. It's thanks to Amit and his fellow writers we got "Forever Red" and-believe it or not-"Forever Red" was the stepping stone for something bigger.
Project Hexagon was Amit's pitch for Season 11, based on the Super Sentai show "Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger". Originally, his plan was to use the idea of Rangers being recruited and organized by Tommy Oliver and expanded it to grand proportions. Much like Nick Fury from Marvel, Tommy would have become a suit-wearing commander of "Project Hexagon", based out of a six-sided government based-kinda like the Pentagon-that employed hundreds upon thousands of people and was so heavily fortified no single villain group could break in. Among the faculty you would have reoccurring and guest appearances by Rangers of the past (Mighty Morhpin', Alien, Zeo, Turbo, In Space, Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, and Wild Force). Along with heroes, villains of the past who's stories were left unresolved in previous seasons like Scorpina and Prince Gasket and Lokar, as examples. Locations like Angel Grove, Mariner Bay, and Turtle Cove would be visited, as well as space-based locations like KO-35, Aquitar, and Terra Venture.
As for the ninja Rangers? Well, Amit considered that too. Remember Ninjor from Mighty Morphin'? The guy who gave the Rangers ninja powers, but he wasn't that hot chick from the Power Rangers movie? Ninjor would teach and imbue new ninja-based powers onto three Rangers-in-training. Thus forming The Ninja Storm Rangers. Tommy-acting like Zordon-would send the Rangers on various missions, and the monsters used in the Sentai would be minions of various villains. For example, if the monster-of-the-week is a machine? He's Gasket's minion. And if he's organic, he is Scorpina's minion. Various Rangers and Ranger Teams would work with the Ninja Rangers, the evil twin Rangers (Dark Red and Dark Blue) would be rogue students who oppose Project Hexagon and often clash with the Ninja Rangers. Amit also wanted a US exclusive Dark Yellow Ranger to even up the teams. The Green Ninja Ranger would be a new Ranger form-the most powerful Ranger to boot-and be used by Tommy under extreme circumstances. With the Rogue Rangers would come defecting Rangers, as well. Rangers who come to oppose Project Hexagon as well as Tommy's iron-clad grip on the organization. Jason-the original Red Ranger-would return and lead a group of rebels against PH and eventually clash with Tommy again, reflecting the days of "Green With Evil".
Various hanging plot-threads would be resolved, like how past Rangers could recover their powers, who The Phantom Ranger was, what Billy was doing on Aquitar, or how The Terra Venture-you know the giant space colony with Earth-based interior, but had futuristic exterior-could even exist. Amit had all these plans that predated Marvel's Civil War (not just the movie, the comic too!) and planned on everything in Power Rangers history being resolved so a new generation (Season 12/Dino Thunder) could start from the ground up. And at the time this would have been successful. "Justice League Unlimited" featured conspiratorial arc, government espionage, and overarching plot resolutions already and that was a cartoon! Plus, drawing parallels to the Pentagon and military factions wasn't a controversial topic for TV shows back then.
But there were issues. Getting various actors to return, the budget of featuring so many Rangers, while most locations were based off LA there was always the worry that two or three cities would look too much alike. There were toy company discussions and payment plans for old actors, there were talks with Japan's Super Sentai in regards to Rangers from different shows appearing next to each other. As you may know, all fight footage featuring The Power Rangers in-costume is footage taken and re-voiced from each Super Sentai show. Even having all the costumes shipped over was costly. Plus, you have to remember all the monster costumes too. The biggest problem was that they were losing money and ultimately Saban's Power Rangers franchise was bought by Disney. Yes, before they owned Star Wars and Marvel Comics, Disney owned Power Rangers for many years from 2003 to 2010, until Saban bought it back. When Disney bought it, Amit and many other crewmen were let go and production was moved to New Zealand for cheaper shooting purposes. With Amit and his fellow writers went the grand-scale vision for Power Rangers.
The concept for Project Hexagon sounds like a fanfic come true and knowing it came from a direct source like Amit, who fortunately got his job back years later, really separates it. Any fan of the show can sit down and write some epic crossover between all the previous installments, but Amit directly worked on Power Rangers and crafted this idea. In another world, we could have gotten this. Similar to when I wrote my ideal DC Cinematic Universe (the PBDC), I'm planning on doing a few posts where I expand on the idea of Project Hexagon and offer my own ideas on where the show could have gone and how the show could have effected future Power Rangers series. Look forward to that. Or don't. It's my blog.
Thank you for reading and May The Power Protect You!
Here's a link to Amit's official blog so you can read more about Project Hexagon!
http://amitbhaumik.tumblr.com/post/38658236644/hexagon
Project Hexagon was Amit's pitch for Season 11, based on the Super Sentai show "Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger". Originally, his plan was to use the idea of Rangers being recruited and organized by Tommy Oliver and expanded it to grand proportions. Much like Nick Fury from Marvel, Tommy would have become a suit-wearing commander of "Project Hexagon", based out of a six-sided government based-kinda like the Pentagon-that employed hundreds upon thousands of people and was so heavily fortified no single villain group could break in. Among the faculty you would have reoccurring and guest appearances by Rangers of the past (Mighty Morhpin', Alien, Zeo, Turbo, In Space, Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, and Wild Force). Along with heroes, villains of the past who's stories were left unresolved in previous seasons like Scorpina and Prince Gasket and Lokar, as examples. Locations like Angel Grove, Mariner Bay, and Turtle Cove would be visited, as well as space-based locations like KO-35, Aquitar, and Terra Venture.
As for the ninja Rangers? Well, Amit considered that too. Remember Ninjor from Mighty Morphin'? The guy who gave the Rangers ninja powers, but he wasn't that hot chick from the Power Rangers movie? Ninjor would teach and imbue new ninja-based powers onto three Rangers-in-training. Thus forming The Ninja Storm Rangers. Tommy-acting like Zordon-would send the Rangers on various missions, and the monsters used in the Sentai would be minions of various villains. For example, if the monster-of-the-week is a machine? He's Gasket's minion. And if he's organic, he is Scorpina's minion. Various Rangers and Ranger Teams would work with the Ninja Rangers, the evil twin Rangers (Dark Red and Dark Blue) would be rogue students who oppose Project Hexagon and often clash with the Ninja Rangers. Amit also wanted a US exclusive Dark Yellow Ranger to even up the teams. The Green Ninja Ranger would be a new Ranger form-the most powerful Ranger to boot-and be used by Tommy under extreme circumstances. With the Rogue Rangers would come defecting Rangers, as well. Rangers who come to oppose Project Hexagon as well as Tommy's iron-clad grip on the organization. Jason-the original Red Ranger-would return and lead a group of rebels against PH and eventually clash with Tommy again, reflecting the days of "Green With Evil".
Various hanging plot-threads would be resolved, like how past Rangers could recover their powers, who The Phantom Ranger was, what Billy was doing on Aquitar, or how The Terra Venture-you know the giant space colony with Earth-based interior, but had futuristic exterior-could even exist. Amit had all these plans that predated Marvel's Civil War (not just the movie, the comic too!) and planned on everything in Power Rangers history being resolved so a new generation (Season 12/Dino Thunder) could start from the ground up. And at the time this would have been successful. "Justice League Unlimited" featured conspiratorial arc, government espionage, and overarching plot resolutions already and that was a cartoon! Plus, drawing parallels to the Pentagon and military factions wasn't a controversial topic for TV shows back then.
But there were issues. Getting various actors to return, the budget of featuring so many Rangers, while most locations were based off LA there was always the worry that two or three cities would look too much alike. There were toy company discussions and payment plans for old actors, there were talks with Japan's Super Sentai in regards to Rangers from different shows appearing next to each other. As you may know, all fight footage featuring The Power Rangers in-costume is footage taken and re-voiced from each Super Sentai show. Even having all the costumes shipped over was costly. Plus, you have to remember all the monster costumes too. The biggest problem was that they were losing money and ultimately Saban's Power Rangers franchise was bought by Disney. Yes, before they owned Star Wars and Marvel Comics, Disney owned Power Rangers for many years from 2003 to 2010, until Saban bought it back. When Disney bought it, Amit and many other crewmen were let go and production was moved to New Zealand for cheaper shooting purposes. With Amit and his fellow writers went the grand-scale vision for Power Rangers.
The concept for Project Hexagon sounds like a fanfic come true and knowing it came from a direct source like Amit, who fortunately got his job back years later, really separates it. Any fan of the show can sit down and write some epic crossover between all the previous installments, but Amit directly worked on Power Rangers and crafted this idea. In another world, we could have gotten this. Similar to when I wrote my ideal DC Cinematic Universe (the PBDC), I'm planning on doing a few posts where I expand on the idea of Project Hexagon and offer my own ideas on where the show could have gone and how the show could have effected future Power Rangers series. Look forward to that. Or don't. It's my blog.
Thank you for reading and May The Power Protect You!
Here's a link to Amit's official blog so you can read more about Project Hexagon!
http://amitbhaumik.tumblr.com/post/38658236644/hexagon
No comments:
Post a Comment