An underwhelming reception means nothing – there’s still a chance we will get a sequel!
The Power Rangers movie did ok in the US, it earned a total $85 million, this wasn’t enough to guarantee a sequel. After its second week at the box office disappointed, all hopes for a sequel were based on this film’s success overseas, and it brought in additional 50 million.
The reason many thought Power Rangers will never get a sequel is the fact that it flopped in one critical area – China. In past few years, the box office in China often helped and turned around the prospects of weak performing movies.
The most famous example for this is Warcraft which completely flopped in the states, but made it big in China.
Power Rangers were not as lucky. They opened to $1,2 million on its first day, showing that Chinese audience is not thrilled by the movie.
This film had a budget of $100 million, and while it earned more than that in box office, it isn’t really the franchise starter Lionsgate apparently hoped it would be. Luckily, there still remains the Japan release (set for July 15) to lift those numbers.
Before the movie was released in March, CEO of Lionsgate, Jon Fetheimer said that they are planning at least five to seven sequels in the future. Unfortunately, due to mild reception, reports claim that there are chances that all of those will be canceled.
Although, it seems that underwhelming performance is not enough to take a sequel of the table, as talks about the sequel of this reboot have emerged, and from none other than the movie director himself.
Film director Dean Israelite talked about the possible antagonist in “Power Rangers 2”. The young interplanetary warriors successfully defeated Rita Repulsa (played by Elizabeth Banks) in Power Rangers reboot released in March 2017, and according to Israelite, their next big baddie will be Lord Zedd.
“Well Lord Zedd is the obvious choice, I think, in a good way. Ya know, there was a time when we were talking about Lord Zedd being in this movie. And it just felt like we didn’t have the real estate for it and I didn’t want to dilute our villains. So we kind of went all in on Rita,” the director stated. “And so I think definitely it would all expanding into the next volume I definitely think have to feature Lord Zedd. I mean that’s not set in stone but I think that’s the obvious, sort of, next step to it.” Israelite told ComicBook.com
He also stated that he hopes to see several upgrades to the Zords in the future installment of this movie. The explanation was that if they are looking to expand the story, they need to make changes in order to make further exploration possible.
Israelite will never stop teasing us. He praised Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa and Bryan Cranston as Zordon, and casually mentioned that he thinks there’s potential for a prequel about the two, although he swiftly made a disclaimer, saying that it is just an idea of his.
“I don’t want to speak for them but I think there’s just so much to their back-story that we could really start exploring what wasn’t a part of the show,” he says. “It could be an area we go to and have these incredible actors bring something for a prequel down the line. That is the potential. There could be prequels to Mighty Morphin’ and we could continue to expand on things that come after.”
In other rumors, we heard that the post-credits scene actually shown a bit of what we can expect in the sequel. In it, the teacher in detention does a roll call, and he repeatedly calls Tommy Oliver who is apparently absent, and on his empty chair, there’s a green coat hanging.
So, the Green Ranger will definitely be in the second part of this franchise. In the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, this role belonged to Jason David Frank, and the audience around the world loved him, so we are curious as to what we can expect from the new Green Ranger. But wait, this film might surprise you, because according to Dacre Montgomery (Red Ranger in the reboot) the Green Ranger just might be a she “A lot of the cast and I have discussed that we think it should be a girl. It makes it even: three girls, three boys.”
We still have no idea as to who might be cast for that role, but all options are open – who do you think would be the perfect cast?