The Daniels’ New Matt Damon Movie Reportedly Has Some Serious POWER RANGERS DNA
The Daniels are making a secret sci-fi superhero movie with Matt Damon, and now we may have a better idea of what they’re cooking up, and Power Rangers fans are definitely going to recognize some familiar ingredients.
On the heels of Disney+ scrapping its planned Power Rangers series, Jeff Sneider reports that the untitled Daniels movie at Universal may draw some serious inspiration from the color-coded heroes and their monster-smashing adventures.
It isn’t actually a Power Rangers movie, but based on the reported story, those comparisons are going to be pretty hard to avoid.
Sneider shared the following description of the project: “From what I hear, it’s basically a Power Rangers movie… without the name. It follows a young cast in color-coded costumes who team up to fight kaiju with the help of a superhero-esque character played by Damon, who has a Jarvis-like AI assistant played (not just voiced) by [Sandra] Oh.
“The wholly original movie has no official connection to Power Rangers, but I’m told it’s a pretty clear influence and that comparisons will definitely be made.”
That sounds like one hell of a playground for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, better known as The Daniels. Giant monsters, color-coded heroes, artificial intelligence, Matt Damon as a superhero-type character, and a story dealing with global warming? Sure, throw it all in there.
The film has previously been described as a “superhero tentpole with global warming as the villain,” but it will tell an original story with its own characters and mythology. There’s no official connection to the Power Rangers franchise.
The story reportedly takes place across two different timelines, jumping between the 1980s and the present day. The '80s portion will center on five young heroes.
Matt Damon, fresh off Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, will lead the cast. He’ll be joined by Sandra Oh, known for Killing Eve and Invincible, who reportedly plays his Jarvis-style AI assistant as an actual onscreen character rather than simply providing a voice.
The five younger stars are Sean Kaufman (The Summer I Turned Pretty, FBI: Most Wanted), Silvia Dionicio (Task, Chicago P.D.), Jackson Kelly (Imperfect Women, The Pitt), Kerrice Brooks (My Old Ass, The Stealthiles), and Thalia Dudek (Better Man, F1).
The supporting cast also includes John Leguizamo (John Wick, The Odyssey), Charles Melton (May December, Riverdale), Michael Gandolfini (Daredevil: Born Again, The Many Saints of Newark), and PinkPantheress.
There still isn’t an official title, but the movie is currently working under the name “Thasnagar.” That could simply be a production placeholder, although “-nagar” translates to “city” or “town” in Sanskrit and Hindi, so it’s possible the name offers a small clue about the movie’s sci-fi setting.
Kwan and Scheinert previously gave audiences the wonderfully bonkers Everything Everywhere All at Once, which went on to win seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
If you give those two filmmakers kaiju, superheroes and color-coded costumes, it’s safe to assume they aren’t interested in making something conventional.
Damon has already offered his own description of the movie’s tone, saying the pitch was: “The Breakfast Club meets Inception meets an anime film meets an episode of The John Oliver Show that didn’t get aired.”
Now add the reported Power Rangers influence and giant monsters. Whatever The Daniels are making, it sounds wild.
The movie is scheduled to hit theaters on November 19, 2027.