Power Rangers director talks franchise future, confirms six-film plan

The future for the Power Rangers reboot franchise appears to be a go (go).

In an interview with Variety this week, Power Rangers producer and Saban Entertainment founder Haim Saban spoke of a whopping “six-film arc” for the popular color-coded teens with attitude — a plan director Dean Israelite, who helms the reimagined origin story out Friday, confirmed to EW.

“It is true that the Saban team, even before I came on to this project, had a document that laid out six movies, so Haim isn’t just saying that flippantly,” Israelite tells EW. “Obviously I was just incredibly focused on getting this one right and setting up the origin story while thinking about teasing the second one, so as far as I’ve gotten in terms of real discussion, creatively, we’ve only gotten kind of into the second one. We just haven’t had the time to really sit down and talk about the full six, but there’s no doubt there is enough material for it, absolutely no doubt that the franchise could be that big.”

In fact, Israelite says it’s possible to do even more than six films, or at least think beyond straightforward sequels. “There’s a lot of ideas that are floating around and that we’re kicking around,” he explains. “As you know, the universe is so expansive. There’s a lot to draw from.”

For instance, future Power Rangers films won’t necessarily have to follow the new team created in the reboot. “What’s exciting to me is we’re breathing life into tangential characters, in a way,” Israelite says, listing Bryan Cranston’s Zordon and Elizabeth Banks’ villainess Rita Repulsa as examples. “Zordon has a lovely, robust backstory, as does Rita. Imagine a prequel that was all about Zordon and Rita and their relationship and their Power Ranger team… There is a way to branch off into other parts of the mythology that this film tees up that werenever truly explored in the show.”

“It could go in a different direction,” he concludes, adding that these ideas aren’t, of course, set in stone. “I’m just speaking as me, I’m not speaking for Saban, but you know, you could also have a prequel or sort of tangential film that operates in conjunction with these [films] that’s Zordon’s or Rita’s story.”

But will Israelite be directing any of these potential future films? Israelite admits that’s still up the air, but he’d “absolutely” love to return. “I love the franchise and what we’ve done with this movie and with these characters,” he says. “I would love to keep going on this journey.”

Power Rangers is in theaters now. Stay tuned to EW for more from Israelite, including a breakdown of the film’s mid-credits scene.