This paper focuses on the multi-objective optimization of the reentrant hybrid flowshop scheduling problem (RHFSP) with machines turning on and off control strategy. RHFSP exhibits significance in many industrial applications, but scheduling with both energy consumption consideration and reentrant concept is relatively unexplored at present. In this study, an improved Multi-Objective Multi-Verse Optimizer (IMOMVO) algorithm is proposed to optimize the RHFSP with objectives of makespan, maximum tardiness, and idle energy consumption. To solve the proposed model more effectively, a series of improved operations are carried out, including population initialization based on Latin hypercube sampling (LHS), individual position updating based on LĂ©vy flight, and chaotic local search based on logical self-mapping. In addition, a right-shift procedure is used to adjust the start time of operations aiming to minimize the idle energy consumption without changing the makespan. Then, Taguchi method is utilized to study the influence of different parameter settings on the scheduling results of the IMOMVO algorithm. Finally, the performance of the proposed IMOMVO algorithm is evaluated by comparing it with MOMVO, MOPSO, MOALO, and NSGA-II on the same benchmark set. The results show that IMOMVO algorithm can solve the RHFSP with machines turning on and off control strategy effectively, and in terms of convergence and diversity of non-dominated solutions, IMOMVO is obviously superior to other algorithms. However, the distribution level of the five algorithms has little difference. Meanwhile, by turning on and off the machine properly, the useless energy consumption in the production process can be reduced effectively.