“Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers” is an attention-grabbing train in localizing worldwide tv for American (and, extra typically, Western) audiences. The present spliced collectively battle footage from the “Tremendous Sentai” collection “Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger” with clips of U.S. actors enjoying youngsters to create wholly authentic tales a few group of teenagers once they’re not preventing evil creatures. The end result was the primary “Energy Rangers” present, which stays time all these years later. It was additionally a monumental hit in its day, lasting for 3 seasons whereas combining totally different generations of “Tremendous Sentai” right into a Frankenstein’s Monster of a TV collection (even when the youngsters watching at dwelling by no means realized that is what it was).
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However “Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers” was greater than only a rankings superpower; it was additionally a merchandising juggernaut and popular culture phenomenon, spawning a theatrical movie and even a dwell touring present in 1995. However, the collection ultimately got here to an finish, with the present rebooting itself by way of a mini-series titled “Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers.” This, in flip, began a practice of adjusting the solid each season (which makes the many “Energy Rangers” anniversary reunions fairly particular) and led to the franchise’s subsequent incarnation, “Energy Rangers Zeo.” Earlier than “Zeo,” although, Fox Youngsters determined to ease youngsters into the brand new present with a collection of quick movies.
After “Zeo” got here 1997’s “Turbo: A Energy Rangers Film,” which was meant to be an introduction to the brand new technology of heroes on “Energy Rangers Turbo.” However whereas the transition from the unique present to “Zeo” went easily (even excluding the quick movies), the transition to “Turbo” was terrible. The brand new collection ignored the return of the villainous Zedd and Rita Repulsa from the top of “Energy Rangers Zeo” whereas inexplicably incorporating new antagonists into the combo.
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Seeing as “Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers” used quick movies to ease the transition into the franchise’s “Zeo” period, presumably that present did the identical factor earlier than “Turbo,” proper? This, ultimately, brings us to the weird story of “Scorpion Rain,” a fan hoax turned city legend that ultimately grew to become canon to the “Energy Rangers” property.
How Scorpion Rain went from a fan hoax to Energy Rangers canon
In 1998, a “Energy Rangers” fan group on Usenet noticed a submit uploaded by — amongst others — Derik Smith, Satu Sharp, and Amit Bhaumik. The tiro claimed to have seen an eight-minute quick movie that takes place after “Energy Rangers Zeo” and options new actors because the Crimson and Pink Zeo Rangers preventing Lord Zedd’s robotic, Serpentera (thus explaining what occurred to Zedd earlier than the occasions of “Turbo”). The submit additionally insisted the quick movie had solely aired in Australia and that is why it was unknown to U.S. audiences. After all, as a result of it was the ’90s, everybody collectively determined to not give this the tiniest little bit of scrutiny, with the entire thing turning out to be a fabrication, a hoax, and in any other case a lie.
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So, how, precisely, did this change into canon? Absolutely everybody ultimately accepted it was all a hoax, proper? Nicely, this is the factor. One of many conspirators, Bhaumik, later grew to become a narrative editor for “Energy Rangers Wild Pressure,” which debuted in 2002 because the tenth anniversary season of the franchise. That present each marked the grand return of Jason David Frank and included the tenth anniversary particular “Endlessly Crimson,” a crossover that includes the Crimson Ranger from each season as much as that time. The episode itself noticed the Rangers preventing the remnants of the Machine Empire from “Energy Rangers Zeo” and uncovering the stays of the destroyed machine Serpenera. That is proper, Serpentera, the one from the “Scorpion Rain” hoax. Being a narrative editor, Bhaumik took it upon himself to reference his personal fan fiction’s plot and dialogue within the collection’ canon, without end immortalizing “Scorpion Rain.”
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Energy Rangers has a nebulous relationship with canon
The “Energy Rangers” canon is, properly, about as meticulously thought-out because the franchise’s overarching story is tightly written. The primary few “Energy Rangers” exhibits, particularly, have a shared continuity, with one collection tying into the subsequent (even when it would not make a lot sense, like how the deeply ’90s “Mighty Morphin” abruptly turns into an area opera with similarities to “Starship Troopers”). Even past that, although, the property does, in actual fact, have a higher continuity and shared canon.
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After 1999’s “Energy Rangers Misplaced Galaxy,” nonetheless, the continuity stopped mattering. As an alternative, the “Energy Rangers” exhibits grew to become standalone and began happening in a fairly nebulous time interval — one that appears fairly fashionable and is devoid of any huge sci-fi components (although the literal stars of the “Energy Rangers” universe had been canonically colonized again in 1998). Lastly, in 2023, “Energy Rangers Cosmic Fury” tied straight again to “Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers” and served as a coda to the unique period of the property.
Now, we’ve got the information that there’s yet one more “Energy Rangers” collection on the best way, as produced by the inventive crew behind “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” and set to stream on Disney+. Although the Disney period of “Energy Rangers” within the 2000s was thought of a low level for the franchise, it nonetheless gave us some nice exhibits like “Dino Thunder.” The query now could be: Will we get a brand new string of quick movies earlier than the newest collection?
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