If you've been paying attention to the world of TV and movies, you'll notice quite a few trends that are dominating Hollywood. Chief among them is 80's and 90's nostalgia, as adults attempt to go back to a simpler time and revisit properties that previously seemed completed. And while some of these reboots pick up where the original left off, like Fuller House and Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, there are others that are changing the game. Case in point: Power Rangers, which is taking the campy 90's children's show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers into a serious action movie. It's a somewhat bizarre concept, which made the news of Bryan Cranston's casting even more surprising. Now we know why he signed up to play Zordon.
Bryan Cranston recently spoke to the good folks at IGN about his role in Power Rangers. It turns out that he took the role when he realized the movie wouldn't really resemble the original silly series. Plus, he actually did voice work on a few episodes of Mighty Morphin. He said,
I thought, 'Power Rangers? It's kind of the [1960s] Batman television show - Pow! Zing! Whap!' And I had a phone call with the director and he said, 'Think of it this way... Like Batman came from TV and became a completely different animal in the movies, so too is it here. We're going to take this and revamp it and it's going to be grounded and real.' And I thought 'Okay, with that, let me read it. I read it and went 'You're right'. The kids sound like real kids and not everyone is this great athlete and everything is working out. I thought, 'This might be a nice bookend to what I was doing before,' since I started out doing voices.
Power Rangers definitely isn't going to be like the the 90's show. It's going to be much more realistic, which is how they booked A-listers like Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Banks.
Just how different Power Rangers is from its source material can be seen from its first trailer and footage. Rather than focusing on "teenagers with attitude" who spend their time exercising and hanging out at the juice bar, Power Rangers will assemble a motley crew of kids who are far less squeaky clean. Additionally, the villain is going from cartoonish to terrifying, as Elizabeth Banks' Rita Repulsa will hunt down the Rangers and attempt to end them before they begin.
In the same interview with IGN, Bryan Cranston also revealed his past with the Power Rangers franchise. When he was first starting out as a professional actor, Cranston actually worked for producer Haim Saban on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Since all of the action sequences needed to be dubbed for English, Cranston actually did some voice work for their villains. Check out one of his appearances below.
Brayn Cranston is the monster who knocks. Never forget that.
While we still haven't seen any footage of Bryan Cranston's Zordon, it's sure to be coming soon. Stay here with CinemaBlend for updates on the upcoming blockbuster.
Power Rangers will fly into theaters on March 24th, 2017.
