Did you grow up watching The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers? Well, if you did, like me, it’s pretty much a sure thing that you will thoroughly enjoy this 14-minute short film produced by Adi Shankar and directed by Joseph Kahn. Shankar enlisted Katie Sackoff (Battlestar Galactica) and James Van Der Beek (Dawnson’s Creek) to play Pink Ranger Kimberly Hart and the second Red Ranger Rocky DeSantos, respectively, in POWER/RANGERS.
The dark-and-gritty short takes place in a dystopian future ruled by the Machine Empire, which, if you remember, consists of robotic villains hellbent on world domination. Rocky, who has since abandoned the Power Rangers to join the winning side, is on a war path to find Tommy (the Green Ranger) and questions Kimberly for answers. The intense interrogation allows for breaks to catch up with the other members of the MMPR–the present is bleak for the lot of them.
Don’t want to give away too much here. So go on and enjoy this R-rated take on the Power Rangers for yourself. And just so you know, this short has no affiliation with the upcoming 2016 reboot film from Saban and Lionsgate. Shankar produced it merely as fan fiction; as a kid he imagined the teenaged Power Rangers as “child soldiers” tasked to ward off evil forces in an intergalactic war “they had nothing to do with.” Yeah, it’s twisted, but it makes total sense. You can hear about Shankar’s inspiration here.
Since there’s no official affiliation and it’s not a pitch, after watching you should go on and support these filmmakers and hopefully after gaining viral traction they will go on to make even cooler projects! Check out Shankar’s YouTube channel where you’ll find previous work like this incredible Punisher short. As for the director Joseph Kahn, he’s mostly dabbled in music video fare (most recently Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”); here’s to hoping Shankar’s wishes for Kahn to become the next big box office hit maker are granted. This short is concrete proof he’s got the chops to make explosive sh*t happen. He expands on the making of POWER/RANGERS at HitFix.
Update (2/26): Hope you caught it while it was up, because it’s been pulled. After raking up over 13 million views in two days, YouTube removed the short from its site because Power Rangers owner Saban Brands is claiming copyright infringement. Adi Shankar isn’t going down without a fight, however; the producer’s legal team is prepared to bring a case to court to get the video back to streaming. Let’s hope this gets settled sooner rather than later; POWER/RANGERS, at the end of the day, is an impressive work of art meant to be shared with MMPR fans now and until the end of time. Yeah, it’s that radical.
Update 2 (2/27): POWER/RANGERS lives thanks to Facebook, the one destination Shankar uploaded his short to that isn’t taking it down at the moment. “Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for hosting Power/Rangers and taking a stand,” he said in a statement to the Facebook founder. Now, don’t waste any time; if you haven’t seen it yet, do so now before it’s too late (again)!
Update 3 (3/1): The legal battle is over and Saban played it cool by letting Shankar re-release the short across YouTube, Vimeo, and anywhere else, really, so long as it specifies a disclaimer, which it does now. Said disclaimer basically states that his production is in no way associated with Saban and their original take on the Power Rangers; plus there’s a viewer discretion warning due to violence and nudity. Which brings me to my next bit of good news: Shankar’s unfiltered, NSFW version of POWER/RANGERS, which was originally banned from YouTube, is now available for your viewing pleasure right here, above. So sit back, relax, and rejoice for today marks a big win for creators everywhere! Director Kahn released the following statement to Deadline: “They put these disclaimers on so kids so don’t confuse our super-violent film with their Power Rangers brand. There are no hard feelings. We signed contracts. We can play it anywhere we want on all platforms. I think they realized that people just want to see it.”