Long before Vin Diesel took on the role of soldier turned indestructible assassin Bloodshot, the character was played by a Power Ranger. Jason David Frank, best known as the Green Ranger, played Bloodshot on a show called Ninjak vs. The Valiant Universe, which was filmed in 2016. The show featured other Valiant Comics rights issues held the show up and for several years, it was in limbo.
Then, last week, it finally made its debut.
The Valiant YouTube posted all six of the planned webisodes for Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe as one mini-movie, and it’s a glimpse of what could have been. No, it doesn’t have the scope or budget of the recent theatrical Bloodshot movie, but its ambition is second to none. Check it out below.
Waaaaay back in September 2016, Gizmodo visited the set of Ninjak and you can read the full report here. At the time, Ninjak himself”Michael Rowe, best known for roles on Flash and Arrow”offered some insight into what the production team hoped the show would become, and what it ultimately is.
“The way this production is set up, you don’t have to answer to studios,” Rowe said. “The CEO [of Valiant] is actually on set with us, finding the heart of these scenes, talking through the story, and we all come out the other end feeling really good about it because we know we’ve found the grit and the grime and the truth in these scenes. It’s so refreshing. On a bigger budget thing, you get certain liberties but you also get a hell of a lot of constraints. So I feel like the shackles are off a little bit on this.”
Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe is directed by Aaron and Sean Schoenke and stars Michael Rowe as Ninjak, John Morrison as Eternal Warrior, Alex Meglei and Kevin Porter as Archer & Armstrong, Derek Theler as X-O Manowar, Ciera Foster as Livewire, and Jason David Frank as Bloodshot.