The Star Wars franchise might have cemented itself as one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood history, but producer Adi Shankar doesn't feel the same way.
The producer of the Power Rangers science fiction fan film Power/Rangers attended this year's Power Morphicon (via ComicBook.com), and during the event he decided to pick a bone with Lucasfilm's galaxy far, far away. Not only does Shankar lambast the franchise's reliance on the monomyth, he also claims that he still doesn't understand why the Rebellion and the Empire continue to be at war.
"I literally think Star Wars is not as cool as Power Rangers.Power Rangers is not about good versus evil. It's not and never has been. It's the lens through which the stories are told to us, through the lens, the narrative lens, but really it's about shades of gray, and it's always been about shades of gray, and it's about people working together to overcome those shades of gray, through a single point of view. That's why the Power Rangers are super powerful. Star Wars is about good versus evil. I don't know what the empire did wrong. I still have no idea. I still don't know, they got up and they dress the same and then they (the rebels) kill them because they dress the same, like, I don't understand it. Yeah they blew up a planet, but that's a cheap reason to want to hate someone. The point is Power Rangers is way doper than Star Wars."
Shankar really seems to have a strong bias against one of Hollywood's most beloved franchises. After speaking with fans at the event, the producer went to elaborate on his comment with ComicBook.com, telling the publication that the Star Wars franchise is "f***** horrible" because it teaches its audiences terrible values.
"Dude, I think Star Wars is f****** horrible. I think Star Wars is a terrible franchise. It has terrible values. What are you teaching people with Star Wars, right? 'Oh yeah, we're the rebels and we're just gonna blow up people who dress the same?' Like it's good versus evil? It's terrible because there's really very little evil out there. The evil is taught to us through a narrative, but the evil has a point of view, the evil has a perspective, and if you don't get to know the perspective of the evil then how do you know you're not evil?"
Based on his comments, it seems like the producer might not have seen all of the Star Wars films yet, because if he had, he would have known that the prequel trilogy does explore Anakin Skywalker's fall to the Dark Side, and that Star Wars: The Last Jedi touches on the different shades of moral grey.
What we do know however is that Shankar has a lot of guts to start picking a bone on a franchise with one of the biggest, and most passionate fanbases. Of course, Power Rangers has its merits, and it's a pretty fun franchise to boot. But honestly Shankar doesn't need to try and start a fight between fanbases. Can't we all just co-exist peacefully?
What do you think about Adi Shankar's contentious comments? Is Power Rangers really better than Star Wars? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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