Simon Bennett recently explained why Gobusters was adapted into Power Rangers Beast Morphers. As many fans will know, Power Rangers was adapted from the popular Tokusatsu franchise, Super Sentai, however, many fans were surprised when Gobusters was announced to be the season that will be adapted as the new season after Ninja Steel.
Power Rangers is a well-known global franchise and adapted many Super Sentai teams over the years. Even though they are adapted from another show, originality is still used to make changes to the content that makes a Power Rangers show or Super Sentai show stand out from each other. However, after Super Megaforce, aka the adaptation of Gokaiger, the franchise began to skip seasons in Super Sentai to adapt. As a result, the order of Power Ranger seasons is now different from the releases of Super Sentai.
Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters was primarily a secret agent themed Ranger Team and also was the first to use Power Ranger elements in its content. This included the phrase “It’s Morphin Time” and the use of the noun “Megazords” for the giant robots featured in the show, which would usually be used by the bad guys to attack the city.
The story of Gobusters is about a computer that was controlling the newly discovered energy source, known as Enetron, that was infected by a virus that caused it to create the evil energy being known as Messiah. Messiah wished to take over mankind and create a world made for machines but was sent into subspace by scientists that sacrificed themselves to stop his plans.
As a result of Messiah’s actions, an Energy Management center’s Special Ops unit was formed from three children and their Buddy Roids, that managed to escape Messiah before he was transported. These three children were then trained to become the Go-busters and worked to stop Messiah’s henchman, Enter, and any other foes from stealing Enetron that would be used to return Messiah to Earth.
Gobusters was supposed to be the next season after Gokaiger to be adapted, so many fans were worried that an adaptation of the show would ever happen. This is not the only series to be skipped as TokQger, ZyuOhger, Kyuranger, and ‘Lupinranger VS Patoranger’ have yet to become a Power Rangers season despite the order in which they were released. Thankfully, the Power Rangers franchise team did backtrack to a previous season that they had skipped, and we did finally get Gobusters adapted into Beast Morphers.
Reasons for adapting Gobusters
Simon Bennett was the director of Beast Morphers and he spoke to us about the decisions and reasons behind the use of the Gobuster adaptation, even though the ranger team was later than expected:
“Well, this was before I was involved in that kind of decision-making. I was the director on Beast Morphers and a director on Ninja Steel, and I’ve only become executive producer and showrunner on the new season of Dino Fury. But I have talked to Chip Lynn about the decisions that went into adapting Go-Busters for Beast Morphers.”
“He’d had the idea some years before it was actually decided to go ahead with it; he’d written up how the adaptation would work, and I think put in a draw. Then after Ninja Steel, he dusted off that proposal and pitched it, and everyone was generally enthusiastic. “
Bennett also briefly revealed the thought process involved with adapting a Super Sentai Season. He also mentioned the general opinion of Gobusters and why they took a liking to the series:
“I think one of the things you have to look at when you’re adapting a Sentai series is: What is the world? What are the costumes like? What are the Zords like? What are the weapons like? What do all these items look like? And how can we make an exciting story around them, because Sentai is the starting point for every Power Rangers season. Everyone thought that the costumes, which are leather unlike the usual spandex, and the Zords and the weaponry and the world of Go-Busters had a really cool look to it. I think that was the starting point for how it came to be adapted.“
The Problems of adapting an older Series
As some fans may know, there are many issues with adapting a season of Super Sentai later in date. This is mainly due to the items used in the show losing their durability as most of the costumes and props have a life of approximately 2 years.
RELATED: POWER RANGERS SHOWRUNNER SIMON BENNETT REVEALS HIS FAVORITE SEASON
Although it was a challenge, Beast Morphers still was made possible and Simon Bennett explained the difficulties involved when asked about whether it was challenging to work with older materials for the show:
“Of course, because all those monster costumes and props were pretty old by the time we got to bring them over from Japan. By Beast Morphers, quite a lot of the rubber had perished, and there was quite a lot of rebuilding from scratch that went on. Not to mention the costumes that kind of fell apart on set.”
Power Rangers Beast Morphers Costume Malfunctions
Bennett revealed moments in which the suits from Gobusters were no longer able to stay composed due to the age of the costumes:
“I remember shooting a scene with the Rangers teams in the Power Ranger costumes, but with the helmets off. This was actually in the finale episode when Evox is zapping Steel in the center of the Morph-X Tower, and the Ranger teams are cowering by the door, unable to do anything to help. The trousers of two of the male members of the team were held together with black gaffer tape, because they had literally fallen apart at the seams and were completely unsuitable. “
“That’s one of the downsides of adapting a season that is quite old, but I think that the aesthetics of Go-Busters and the design elements that we adopted and brought into Beast Morphers are fantastic and timeless.”
It’s amazing that fans got to see an older season of Super Sentai adapted even with the difficulties involved. With many fans loving Beast Morphers, it’s exciting to see what Simon Bennett will do with Power Rangers Dino Fury. Hopefully, the same thing will happen to other Super Sentai teams that have been skipped but only time will tell if they will become a Power Rangers series.
What do you think about Gobusters being adapted so late? Are you looking forward to Power Rangers Dino Fury after knowing more about Beast Morphers? Comment below, or tell us on social media, and stay tuned to The Illuminerdi for more Power Ranger and Tokusatsu news.
KEEP READING: SIMON BENNETT DISCUSSES THE PROCESS OF MAKING POWER RANGERS DINO FURY A REALITY
