Power Rangers

Power Rangers began in 1993 with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, an American adaptation of footage from the Japanese series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. The American production combined newly filmed scenes featuring its cast with action footage from the Japanese show. That approach helped establish a recognizable format: teenagers or other young people receive colored costumes, transform into a team of heroes, and fight monsters threatening Earth.

In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, high-school students Jason Lee Scott, Zack Taylor, Kimberly Hart, Trini Kwan, and Billy Cranston are chosen by Zordon, an ancient mentor, to defend the city of Angel Grove. They use Power Coins to transform into the original Red, Black, Pink, Yellow, and Blue Rangers. Their enemy, Rita Repulsa, is released from imprisonment on the Moon and sends monsters against them. The Rangers’ robot partners, called Zords, can combine into the Megazord, a giant machine used in battles against enlarged monsters.

The original cast and team changed during the early seasons. Jason, Zack, and Trini were replaced by Rocky DeSantos, Adam Park, and Aisha Campbell. Tommy Oliver, introduced first as Rita’s mind-controlled Green Ranger, later becomes an ally and serves as the White Ranger. These changes became part of the program’s continuing story rather than ending the series. The 1995 feature film, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, extended the original television story with a new threat, Ivan Ooze, and introduced the Rangers’ Ninja powers and Ninjazords.

The franchise’s structure also allowed it to tell new stories with new teams and settings. After Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo continued the narrative with the Zeo team, while later installments—including Power Rangers in Space, Lost Galaxy, Time Force, and Dino Thunder—introduced distinct Ranger teams, adversaries, and powers. Many seasons adapted costumes, creatures, and fight sequences from different installments of Japan’s long-running Super Sentai series, while creating original English-language plots and character scenes.

Power Rangers became a durable children’s television franchise, extending beyond broadcast seasons into films, comics, toys, and live performances. Its 2017 theatrical film rebooted the original team’s origin, with a different cast and a more contemporary setting. In 2023, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always brought several original-era actors back for a reunion special, marking three decades since the television franchise began. The series is therefore defined both by its recurring team-based premise and by its unusually long run of changing teams, adaptations, and returning characters.