Did Power Rangers Just Drop a Look at Its Axed Animated Reboot?

The Power Rangers franchise might not be coming back any time soon, but it’s sparking up conversations all over again as the first look at a potentially cancelled animated reboot has surfaced online. The Power Rangers franchise recently celebrated its 31st anniversary, and over the three decades the series has gone on to inspire multiple iterations of the TV series, video games, comic books, and even a few feature films over the years. But there’s one avenue that the franchise has yet to explore in all this time, an animated one as the series has not gotten an animated project of any kind. 

But it seems like an animated project could have happened as a surfaced animated film for the Power Rangers franchise has popped up online. The touted cancelled film, Power Rangers: Origins, would have been developed by Saban Brands and Zag Entertainment (the production studio behind Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir), and would have featured a new take on the original team from the first season of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers TV series. Posters and other promotional material for the cancelled project have appeared on eBay (as spotted by @RangerBoard on X) and you can check them out below. 

What Is Power Rangers: Origins? 

Details for this reportedly cancelled project are scarce due to the secretive nature of its development, but Power Rangers: Origins was apparently in development for Saban Brands in the period where they owned the franchise and were looking ahead to what could be coming next. This was during the era following Saban Brands buying the franchise back from Disney, and developing new projects. Which means it was also during the period in the 2010s before the franchise rights were sold to Hasbro, but for one reason or another this animated take on the franchise never came to pass (much also like the recently cancelled Netflix reboot). 

From the looks at the material, it looks to be a fully animated rebooted take on the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers line up of Jason, Kimberly, Billy, Zack and Trini. Though their respective characters might have gotten redesigns for the new era, it seems like the rest of the franchise would have been redesigned as well with new designs for the zords as seen through the promotional materials as well. But an animated version of the franchise is still something many fans are hoping to see in action someday. 

Will There Ever Be an Animated Power Rangers? 

Desire for a fully animated Power Rangers series is something fans of the franchise have been vocal about for quite some time. As the live-action TV shows and movies are currently inactive, fans had hoped to see some kind of animated take bring the franchise in a whole new kind of direction that can’t be replicated with real suit actors as seen in the Tokusatsu adaptations. But there could be several different reasons why the franchise has yet to make an animated debut with the central being potential licensing issues. 

Given that the Power Rangers franchise adapts Toei’s Super Sentai series in Japan, there are a number of deals likely in place to use the characters in different ways. Whether changing these designs and squarely focusing on the Power Rangers versions of the characters makes it easier for some kind of project, it’s all holding back an animated take. Unlike some of the other Hasbro brands enjoying their animated runs, Power Rangers just might be more complicated in getting an animated version out there. Especially now that the TV series seems to have gone dormant for the time being.