Warning: possible spoilers for Power Rangers are ahead!
Rita Repulsa is a scheming, powerful space witch, but even she can't conquer Earth all by herself. So just like her TV counterpart over two decades ago, she'll have help in the Power Rangers reboot. At New York Comic-Con, it was confirmed that Rita will be aided by Goldar, who in the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers series was one of her top henchman. However, for the new movie, it sounds like Goldar could actually be the key to taking the Rangers' source of power.
According to The Wrap, Power Rangers' version of Goldar was designed for one purpose: to break through the force field that protects the Zeo crystal, the artifact that taps into the dimension known as the Morphing Grid, which gives the Rangers their power. The crystal was hidden on Earth long ago to keep away from those who would use it for destruction, and it's protected by a force field that will vaporize anything that touches it. Goldar, however, is the exception, which is why he's so dangerous.
The movie's opening action sequence, which takes place on Ancient Earth will reportedly see Goldar being "vaporized into a cloud of microscopic gold particles," but his "molecular essence" will be scattered across the globe. In the present day, Rita Repulsa will steal gold to try to reform Goldar, and the Power Rangers will only have 71 hours to stop her from accomplishing this goal. While one might think at first that once she has the crystal in her hands, Rita will destroy it so she can eliminate the Rangers once and for all, that may not actually be the case. Apparently Rita is trying to steal the Zeo crystal for her master, Lord Zedd, who supposedly burned off half of his face attempting to steal the artifact himself.
Assuming this information is legitimate, Power Rangers appears to taking great care to improve Goldar's reputation in this continuity. On TV, Goldar was a bumbling warrior who was frequently defeated by the morphenomenal heroes, but in the upcoming movie, he's been turned into a living weapon. Given his importance, one can surmise that Rita will successfully recreate Goldar, though hopefully the Rangers will defeat him with their weapons or Zords before he comes anywhere near the Zeo crystal.
The other big takeaway from this report is Lord Zedd, who is clearly being set up as a main antagonist for a Power Rangers sequel. That falls closely in line with Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, where he took over Rita Repulsa's operation and attempted to destroy the Rangers himself (although he and Rita later married and joined forces). If Elizabeth Banks' Rita fails her mission next year, count on Zedd picking up where she left off. Since Zedd looked fairly creepy back in the good ol' days (as seen above), it would be interesting to see how the reboot series would make him look more terrifying.
Power Rangers morphs into action on March 24, 2017.
