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Why The Completed Power Rangers Series May Never Get Released
A new Power Rangers live-action series is on the horizon and headed to Disney+, and with the talented showrunners of Percy Jackson and the Olympians at the helm, you can understand why franchise fans are starting to get excited. Up until two months ago, it was actually one of two Power Rangers series in development, but it appears that one of those projects may never be released despite being complete, and now we have the reasoning behind the hold-up and possible cancellation.
Earlier this year, fans got their first look at the Power Rangers Ninja Kidz series that was set to give the long-running web series its big finale, and it certainly started some discussions amongst fans. After that leaked trailer, there’s been little to no word on the show actually being released, but in a statement to Legacy of Nerd, Ninja Kidz creator Shane Myler revealed the reason behind all of the issues. Those stem from what seem to be issues between Hasbro and Playmates regarding the deal made with Ninja Kidz, which in turn seems to be causing problems with the upcoming Power Rangers live-action series at Disney.
Myler’s statement says that they submitted a teaser draft and a draft of the first episode to Hasbro and Playmates in September, and the reactions were positive from both. Unfortutnely Hasbro then issued a cease and desist in October, claiming that Playmates didn’t have the authority to make a deal with Ninja Kidz and that the episodes looked too professional, and could interfere with Hasbro’s official reboot.
Power Rangers Ninja Kidz Creator Addresses Hasbro Conflicts and AI Backlash
In Myler’s full statement, he addresses the conflicts with Hasbro and some of the behind-the-scenes issues, as well as the backlash the team received when the leaked trailer revealed the use of AI effects. There’s also a reveal that Jason Faunt (Power Rangers Time Force) was set to have a cameo, with AI just being a placeholder until that was actually filmed. You can read Myler’s full statement below.
“We are doing everything in our power to release episodes 10-13 of Power Rangers Ninja Kidz and we have been wanting to share why we haven’t but this is all we can share for now. We submitted a teaser draft to Hasbro and Playmates on September 24 and a draft of Episode One on September 26.
Both Playmates and Hasbro initially reacted with excitement and shared that we exceeded expectations. We anxiously awaited additional feed back. Then, on October 3rd, the unthinkable happened. Hasbro’s legal team issued a cease and desist, claiming Playmates didn’t have the authority to make the deal with Ninja Kidz. We were later told that the project looked too professional and it could interfere with Hasbro’s future plans. That was devastating. This was never meant to compete with an official reboot.
Some of you later saw that teaser after it got leaked on Oct 17th. Concerns were raised by a few people about AI and visual effects. What you saw was never meant to be final. We were under tight deadlines to submit a rough cut, and like many productions today, our editors and VFX artists used a mix of traditional techniques and newer AI-assisted tools to explore ideas quickly.
We were genuinely excited seeing characters like Goldar and Finster come to life in new ways—things that would have been incredibly expensive or time-consuming to do at that stage using only traditional methods. Most of the generative AI effects were simply placeholders, always intended to be replaced once we had clear creative direction and approvals. One example was the AI news anchor in the teaser, which was standing in for a cameo role we had already cast Jason Faunt to play. We were also working on additional legacy cameos to pay homage to the Power Rangers legacy and fandom.”
It’s not known if the series will ever be released at this point, which is a shame, as the team clearly put a lot of time into making this a worthy finale and something special. Hopefully, something can get worked out behind the scenes so these episodes can finally see the light of day.
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