When a film reboot of the Power Rangers was announced, fans, including myself, were curious to how much the project would embrace the campiness of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series.
Let’s be honest, the original Power Rangers was both silly and cheesy, and featured some hilariously bad production values. I recently tried watching it again as an adult and while it was ambitious, it was also painfully bad in the best way possible. As a kid, it was my obsession. My Power Rangers collection included action figures, clothes, comic books and more. Seeing the Power Rangers go up against a villain each week, such as Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa or Scorpina, was my first exposure to action and boy, did I love it.
So with a reboot on its way, would we get a campy, fun-looking Power Rangers? It appears not. Entertainment Weekly posted the first look at the teenage heroes in their new costumes, and it appears they’re going for a newer, grittier version of the characters.
I’m OK with moving away from spandex, but the new duds don’t look very fun. I’m not sure why the Pink and Yellow Ranger’s costume feature heels, or why all of them have ab plates, but it could have been much, much worse. The costumes do look somewhat similar to Iron Man or Blue Beetle‘s suits, which makes sense considering they’re going for a superhero vibe.
From left to right, we have Yellow Ranger Trini (played by Becky G), Black Ranger Zack (Ludi Lin), Red Ranger Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Pink Ranger Kimberly (Naomi Scott) and Blue Ranger Billy (RJ Cyler). The new cast was introduced in March.
Here’s a look at how the original Power Rangers suited up on TV.
Director Dean Israelite told EW that the suits will embody the spirit of each Power Ranger.
“The show was about kids coming of age, about metamorphosis,” director Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) says. “These suits needed to feel like they were catalyzed by these kids and their energy, their spirit.”
Costume designer Andrew Menzies said the costumes will appeal to a more mature audience.
“It’s tricky finding a new language for a superhero costume,” production designer Andrew Menzies (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) admits. “Ours is an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans.”
It’s hard to fault that logic. If the Power Rangers reboot featured the old spandex suits, then the new movie would only appeal to older fans and maybe young children. They needed to do something different to make them look cool and modern.
It’s the same thinking in changing the look of Rita Repulsa. Here’s how she looked on TV.
This is how she’ll now look in the movie, as played by Elizabeth Banks. Much, much different, almost like a version of Batman villain Poison Ivy from one of the Arkham City games.
With the new costume designs, the production team has created something entirely unique for the series, providing an opportunity to launch a new Power Rangers movie universe.
It’s still weird seeing the Power Rangers as relevant in 2016, given my love for them peaked almost 20 years ago. But I’m excited to see where they take the new upcoming film series. It’s going to be very different than what we’ve seen before, but given how many iterations the Power Rangers franchise has gone through, that’s probably for the best.
You’ll get a chance to see the new suits in action when Power Rangers hits theaters on March 24, 2017.
