We often find ourselves fascinated by movies that refuse to exist merely on their own merits, but which instead live as the vessels of ambition for other, as-yet-hypothetical films. There’s a very particular kind of movie that refuses to merely be a good story, told well, but which must serve as an even clunkier artifact: A franchise launcher. And when these cinematic Helens fail to launch even a single other ship? So much the stranger.
It’s in that light that we find ourselves fixating today on a new interview from Stranger Things and Faces Of Death star Dacre Montgomery, who was, once upon a time, Power Rangers star Dacre Montgomery. Montgomery confirmed to MovieWeb this week what we all knew, deep in our hearts: The 2017 film, which also starred Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Banks, and Bill Hader in roles their agents somehow failed to protect them from, was never meant to be a standalone film, or even the start of a mere trilogy. No, Power Rangers (2017) was intended as the launching point for a whole tetralogy. (We would also accept “saga” or “cycle” in this situation.)
Montgomery—who shared Ranger duties in the film with RJ Cyler, Naomi Scott, Becky G, and Ludi Lin—said that the films were pitched as “a four-picture deal with Lionsgate,” noting that the studio was fresh off a massive four-installment success with its then-recent Hunter Games movies. But then, of course, Power Rangers barely made back its $100-million-plus budget, and so, Montgomery says, “What can you do, right? We’re talking about money and big business, and it didn’t make enough on the investment that the studio had made to continue making more.” (He does note that he’s heard some kind of other reboot of the franchise is currently in the works; Disney+ is reportedly working on a new TV series being headed up by the guys behind Percy Jackson And The Olympians.)
Speaking of Disney, these incredibly ambitious Power Rangers plans put us in mind of comments that actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani made last year about his own dalliances with the world of blockbusters, when he revealed that he’d been on the hook for six movies and a theme park ride set in the world of Marvel’s Eternals. Truly, we live in the darkest universe—although not the Dark Universe, which also totally failed to take off after its first installment flopped.
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