Summary
- The original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was scrutinised for casting a Black man and an Asian woman as the Black and Yellow rangers, respectively.
- Lead writer Tony Oliver has now admitted that it was “a mistake”, and that “None of us [were] thinking stereotypes”.
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers has long been scrutinised for casting a Black man as the Black Ranger and an Asian woman as the Yellow Ranger. Back in 2013, as the original series celebrated its 20th anniversary, co-creator Shuki Levy finally addressed the backlash, claiming that it “wasn’t intentional at all”. Fast-forward ten years, and lead writer Tony Oliver has gone as far as to say that it was “a mistake”.
“None of us [were] thinking stereotypes,” Oliver reflected in the latest episode of Hollywood Demons, titled Dark Side of the Power Rangers (via Entertainment Weekly). He revealed that it took his “assistant who pointed it out in a meeting one day” to realise what they’d done.
In the original pilot, the Yellow Ranger was played by Audri Dubois, but after being denied a pay increase, she left and was replaced by Thuy Trang.
However, it was joked about on set by the cast, as revealed in camcorder footage taken by stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt. As shown in the Hollywood Demons episode, Walter Jones at one point mused, “I play Zack. I’m Black, and I play the Black Ranger — go figure.” So, it wasn’t just the fans who noticed after the fact.
Later Seasons Would Avoid Falling Into The Same Stereotype
Jones, Trang, and Red Ranger Austin St. John left in the second season over pay disputes, and creator/executive producer Haim Saban took this opportunity to immediately step away from the stereotyped casting. Jones was replaced by Korean-American actor Johnny Yong Bosch, whereas Trang was replaced by Black actor Karan Ashley.
Of course, that doesn’t mean a Black actor would never play a Black Ranger again (Will Aston stepped into the role for Operation Overdrive in 2007), but Power Rangers has avoided repeating MMPR’s mistakes for over three decades now, even in the 2017 movie, which cast Chinese actor Ludi Lin as Zack, and Latina actor Becky G as Trini, with Black actor RJ Cyler taking the role of Billy. The cast remained diverse (with Trini even being the first openly lesbian character in the franchise) without stumbling into the same pitfalls as the ’90s series.
As for the future of the franchise, Disney+ might be taking the helm, a fun twist of fate given that Disney once owned Power Rangers in the ’00s. Reportedly, a new series is in development alongside Hasbro, with Percy Jackson and the Olympians showrunners Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz in negotiations to serve as producers.
