Megaforce: What We Know

Power Rangers Megaforce, abbreviated to PRM by the fandom, is going to be the next incarnation of Power Rangers. But what do we actually know about it? What we know about it is quite interesting.


The show will be two seasons long, like Samurai

This of course will lead to the same complaints that we’ve had for the past two years- there will be huge gaps where there are no episodes airing. This has the potential to hurt the ratings of the show as experience with Samurai has shown. There has been a tentative title of the second season, which is Super Megaforce, which I hope is not true.

Megaforce Season 1 will take footage from Goseiger

This I’m underwhelmed by, but I can understand why they went for it. The ranger colour scheme is the same as MMPR and the card gimmick, while I’m not a huge fan of it, can be used quite well. I’m underwhelmed by the suits, especially that gold outline around the visors, but eh, whatever. Aesthetics, while they have an impact on first impressions aren’t the most important thing- I enjoy Lightspeed Rescue but hate the suits.

Megaforce Season 2 will take footage from Gokaiger and there will be 20th anniversary references

This is the interesting part, to be honest. There has been talk that the people at Saban Entertainment don’t like the pirate theme of Gokaiger (for some reason), but using footage from Gokaiger will pose some interesting problems. There are a few ways they can approach it.

1. Season 2 of Megaforce will have Gokaiger mecha and Goseiger suits (effectively doing an MMPR2). This poses the problem of why the Megaforce team will have a pirate ship with pirate logos all over it as their zords.

2. There will be two teams, a pirate themed one and a... whatever theme Megaforce will be (current talk is that it's air theme, whatever that means) team running around at the same time. This poses a few writing issues, but it will give space for the Gokai changes to happen.

3. The Gokaiger suits will be an upgrade like the transition to Zeo. This is possible, and I certainly won’t dislike such a move. Good writing will be crucial to ensure characterisation is fleshed out in a tiny number of episodes.

4. Super Megaforce  will have a whole new team/story and giving it the same name is only to keep Nickelodeon happy, though this hinges on the idea that Nickelodeon dictates that each incarnation exist for two years. I don’t think this will happen, but I guess it’s an option.

Where they will put the references and past ranger appearances is up to speculation. Season 1 will have the obvious MMPR references, but whether there will be anything beyond that is difficult to tell. Cameos from previous seasons are possible in Megaforce season 1 and 2, and it’s too early to tell. Of course, the parallels between the Gosei and Tensou characters and the Zordon and Alpha characters are bound to happen.

Megaforce will feature teenagers with attitude

Well, kind of. The casting call implies that it’s about university students, but that’s beside the point. The whole 20th anniversary thing means that there will be many callbacks to MMPR, and adapting the whole ‘giant head with robot buddy’ thing plays into it conveniently. I can see the commercial advantage of doing this, and I don’t see anything wrong with the setup, because in the end it will all come down to execution. I’m hoping for a DT style season personally, but I’m going to wait and see.

The individual zords will be called ‘Mechazords’

Possibly. According to Amazon  anyway, which isn’t the best source, but whatever. the megazords will be called GoseiGreat Megazord and GoseiGround. Hmm, they’re all right, I guess. They had to come up with something different than <season name> Megazord due to the name they chose. It doesn’t get much better when it comes to creativity, though, since we have...

Gosei Knight will be called Robo Knight

Also, the mentor will be called ‘Gosei’ and his assistant will be called ‘Tensou’. Well, that’s the completely unoriginal part of the show right there. Taking words from the Sentai is just lazy, and Robo Knight isn’t much better. Same with the foot soldiers being called ‘Loogies’, after having to put up with ‘Moogers’ for Samurai. They’re not bad names per se, just lazy.

It’s entirely possible that these are still just placeholders, but I doubt it.


We have a cast

Hey, check them out. I'll reserve judgement for when the show actually starts.

There are questions, of course. Will they include pre-Zyuranger  teams? Talk of a newly filmed legendary war implies that it won’t, but it’s something that’s inspired... lengthy discussion on Rangerboard. My biggest hope is that they include the spirit rangers and titanium ranger. Including them is what will make it truly Power Rangers.

My biggest worry is that the idea of a hybrid season brings with it writing challenges, and given the Google translating that went on in Samurai... not a good start. With that said, I’m cautiously optimistic that this incarnation of the franchise will be good. They’ve had time to look at what they want to make and really think about making something great. This is opposed to Samurai, where they had little time to mount a production, and when you port over arcs from the Sentai... well, you have to stick by them, eh?

Looking forward to 2013.




EDIT: According to Samuraicast, Gosei and Tensou are NOT going to the the characters we think they will be. There's no info as to who they will be, but what they are not. I also forgot to mention the names of the villains, which are Admiral Malkor, Vrak, and Creepox. Eh.