“As I mentioned, we’ve now announced the acquisition of Power Rangers. This is really a great statement about where we believe we are in developing our brand blueprint. The fact that we can acquire Power Rangers brand and plug and play that right into our strategy where we activate it in entertainment, motion pictures in the future and then of course across toys and games and consumer products and do so globally. We felt the brand was very under leveraged and undervalued. We feel we can exploit it to a much greater extent and it was a great opportunity to acquire the brand.”
– Brian Goldner, Hasbro Inc. CEO
On Thursday May 31st, Hasbro held their 34th annual Hasbro Strategic Decisions Conference at the Grand Hyatt in New York City, NY. At the conference, the Hasbro, Inc. CEO spoke about the future and its plans for their various properties and licensed products such as Magic: The Gathering, Transformers, My Little Pony, and Power Rangers.
On May 1st, we informed you that Hasbro, Inc. had acquired all the rights to Power Rangers for just over $500 million dollars from SABAN. You can read all of the details of that transaction right here: https://comicbooked.com/hasbro-to-acquire-power-rangers-and-saban-assets/. Now, we learn about their potential intent for the Power Rangers.
In Goldner’s speech he says “motion pictures in the future” indicating that future movies are on the table. The tricky part is that a deal had previously been struck with Lionsgate Films that produced the 2017 Power Rangers movie. Hasbro recently formed AllSpark Pictures in a deal with Paramount So, what will most likely happen is a complete reboot under their joint AllSpark studio. An adaption of the recently and highly successful ‘Shattered Grid’ story line would be a great route for Hasbro to take as it would allow them to tie in their comic books, televisions shows, merchandise and a new film.
The same studio is currently working on G.I. Joe, a Snake Eyes spin-off, Transformers (although Tranformers 7 was recently pulled from the slate), Visionaries, M.A.S.K., ROM, Micronauts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a host of other projects based on Hasbro’s properties are at varying stages of development. The intent is to bring all of these in to one, single shared universe. Will Power Rangers now share a universe with GI Joe and ROM?
We will have to see!
About Hasbro
Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is a global play and entertainment company committed to Creating the World’s Best Play Experiences. From toys and games to television, movies, digital gaming and consumer products, Hasbro offers a variety of ways for audiences to experience its iconic brands, including NERF, MY LITTLE PONY, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, MONOPOLY, BABY ALIVE and MAGIC: THE GATHERING, as well as premier partner brands. Through its entertainment labels, Allspark Pictures and Allspark Animation, the Company is building its brands globally through great storytelling and content on all screens. Hasbro is committed to making the world a better place for children and their families through corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. Hasbro ranked No. 5 on the 2018 100 Best Corporate Citizens list by CR Magazine and has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere Institute for the past seven years. Learn more at www.hasbro.com and follow us on Twitter (@Hasbro & @HasbroNews) and Instagram (@Hasbro).
