POWER RANGERS DINO FURY Showrunner Talks About the Upcoming Season

Den of Geek recently got to talk to Simon Bennett who recently became the showrunner for the upcoming Power Rangers season Dino Fury. In the interview, Bennett talks about his new position, how rushed the show is sometimes, and more. There were a couple of things that I particularly wanted to highlight though. For starters, when asked about how far in advance the scripts are typically written, Bennett responded:

I think that’s the case. It takes a long time. It’s not quick to write these scripts. There are a lot of complexities and also the adaptation of the Sentai is tricky as well because we have to retrofit Power Rangers around an existing Japanese TV show. We have to spend quite a lot of time looking at the episodes that exist of the particular Sentai season that we’re going to adapt, and looking at the world that the Japanese show has created, like the design and all the elements and the range of characters. Then we have to think about how what they have given us might work for an American audience and what might not work. Because there are couple of differences between Japan and the States and different levels of what works for two-to-six year olds, which is our target audience, and different cultural expectations.

We have to build a world that mirrors what Sentai has already created but it’s got to be fascinating and intriguing for our audience and also generate potential for the number of episodes that we’re going to write. Then once the world and the characters are designed, then we have to come up, obviously, with some arcs that run across the season, but also strong individual stories because there’s always been a directive that episodes of Power Rangers have to work on a standalone basis. There’s not a huge appetite for serial threads. Although the writers do try and sneak in Easter eggs for people who like to watch them in sequence and work out what’s going to happen next and what the clues are.

Personally, I think longer story arcs are appreciated more than some may think, but what do I know. Also, Bennett was asked about focusing the show on children, but still maintaining interest for adults. He talks about it being a challenge sometimes (understandably) and how adults typically care more for the older seasons because of nostalgia, but then he goes on to say:

You’re unlikely to be able to measure up to the golden memories that a lot of the super fans actually have.

That’s just a given. Having said that, we always try and reward the loyal, long-standing audience members with some things that are only going to mean anything to them. They won’t mean much to the younger audience who are only watching the show for the first time but it’s a juggling act. It always is. The writers here in New Zealand, they are probably of a similar age to a lot of the long running fans and they are fans of the show themselves and they loved the canon lore. We’re always trying to throw in rewards for people who have been long running fans of the show.

Finally, Bennett is asked about Dino Fury. He’s unable to say much of anything about the season itself other than the fact that the season has a dinosaur theme which we already knew. However, he does add a little about what he wants to bring to the table.

In terms of what I intend to bring to the show? You know, there are a lot of overlords for someone in my position, I don’t have carte blanche to be able to say, okay, let’s make this show unique, different, and my vision, that’s not the way television works. It’s a very collaborative medium. And there are a lot of people who have input into the tone and what the show is. And so I certainly wouldn’t go into this wanting to reinvent the wheel or rock the boat.

What I do hope to do is come up with an exciting world, a bunch of compelling characters, a whole lot of episodes that keep people hooked and on the edge of their seat and some surprises and twists and turns along the way.

What I will be doing is bringing my skill as a drama producer and director to bear on the show and make sure the standards in my view remains consistently high. That’s my job. What I see one of the main jobs of a creative producer being is to work closely with the writers, to completely understand the vision and the intent behind the stories. Then make sure that every single person who works on the show shares that vision so that what we end up with is consistent, rather than a hodgepodge of slightly mismatched ideas. I follow it right through to the end of the process.

What are you most excited for or hoping to see in Dino Fury? Dino Fury is set to premiere on Nickelodeon in 2021.