Reboots are a dime a dozen nowadays, but it is a little amazing that it’s taken this long for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to return to the big screen in a revamped, re-energized reboot. Nevertheless, judging from the Rangers polished and high-tech newest iteration seen in their new trailer, released at the recent New York Comic-Con, it’s been well worth the wait!
“Power Rangers” first got its start as the highly popular Japanese super sentai series, which blended superheroes, martial arts and giant monsters from tokusatsu films. However, it was first introduced in the the early 90’s in the form of Saban’s “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers”, which used stock footage from the sentai series “Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger” as its foundation, combined with original content produced in the US. The series became an overnight success among its target demographic of young children and kick-started countless careers including those of Toso Kune Do founder and MMA fighter Jason David Frank, voice actor and indie martial arts star, Johnny Yong Bosch as well as acclaimed action director Isaac Florentine, among many others. The series would also spawn two American-produced feature films, 1995’s “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Movie” and 1997’s “Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie”.
Since its inception in the West in the early 90’s, “Power Rangers” has run for an astonishing twenty-three seasons and gone through over a dozen iterations, each one an adaptation of one of the sentai series, in that period. That predilection for constant reinvention and re-interpretation is clear from the trailer above, which seems to be retro-fitting “Power Rangers” through the lens of contemporary superhero films and giving the series a somewhat more mature re-imaging from the child-friendly early days (though nowhere near as jarring as producer Adi Shankar’s fan film from last year, which gave the Rangers a dark and extremely violent R-rated makeover).
The new Ranger roster includes Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott, RJ Cyler, Becky G, and Ludi Lin in the roles of Jason Lee Scott, Kimberly Hart, Billy Cranston, Trini Kwan, and Ludi Lin, while Bryan Cranston portrays their ethereal mentor in a tube, Zordon, and Elizabeth Banks steps into the role of their extra-terrestrial menace, Rita Repulsa. “Saturday Night Live” alumni Bill Hader will also portray the Rangers robotic ally Alpha-5, and Rita’s trusted henchmen, Goldar and the Putty Patrol, are also confirmed to appear in the film. And yeah…the Ranger’s new outfits are awesome to an almost ridiculous degree!
“Power Rangers” is set to hit theaters on March 24th. Stay tuned for more info on the film as it powers on through!
