Disney+ Passes on Live-Action Power Rangers Series

Disney+ will not move forward with its live-action Power Rangers series, ending a project that spent roughly eighteen months in development without ever reaching production.

The series was written and executive produced by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz, with 20th Television as the studio, according to Deadline. It will not go past the development stage — the phase where a script is written and refined before a platform decides whether to order a full series.

The decision was driven by business and budget considerations, not creative concerns, Deadline reported. In other words, the scripts or creative direction were not the problem; the cost of producing the show did not align with Disney+'s plans.

Hasbro, which owns the Power Rangers brand, has been seeking to launch a live-action adaptation for some time. Netflix attempted one several years earlier but also did not proceed. The Disney+ project was the most recent effort to bring the franchise back to screens in a scripted format.

Disney+ has been opening its slate to outside intellectual property — characters and stories that did not originate within Disney's own library. Recent development deals include series adaptations of Ella Enchanted and Casper, Deadline reported. The Power Rangers project fit that strategy, but the numbers did not work out.

For Steinberg and Shotz, the Power Rangers pass does not leave them idle. The duo is finishing Season 3 of the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which premieres on 20 November, and developing other projects under their overall deal with 20th Television — a contract that keeps them creating shows for the studio across multiple titles.

Power Rangers has cycled through several homes over the years. The franchise began as a live-action children's series in 1993, ran for decades across various networks, and was acquired by Hasbro in 2018. A live-action streaming adaptation has been a goal for the brand, but two platforms have now passed on making one.

Whether Hasbro seeks a new partner for the property remains an open question, and neither Hasbro nor Disney+ has publicly commented beyond Deadline's report.