Ah! After what felt like 10,000 years, several of the original Power Rangers have reunited to save the world, treating fans to plenty of nostalgic callbacks and fun reveals along the way.
Now streaming on Netflix, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always finds Billy (David Yost) and Zack (Walter Jones) building a new-ish team of Rangers to take on Rita Repulsa (voiced once again by Barbara Goodson), following the tragic death of Yellow Ranger Trini (Thuy Trang) at Rita’s now-robotic hand.
The painful loss of Trini, whose portrayer died in 2001 car accident, looms large in Once & Always, as Trini’s daughter Minh (Charlie Kersh) rises up to take her mother’s place as the new Yellow Ranger. Meanwhile, Rocky (Steve Cardenas) and Kat (Catherine Sutherland) rejoin the team to fill the void left by Jason and Kimberly, who are among the many Rangers kidnapped to power Rita’s time-traveling device. Though no longer in Ranger form, Karan Ashley and Johnny Yong Bosch also return as Aisha and Adam, respectively.
At a breezy 55 minutes, Once & Always is a delightfully cheesy, totally satisfying tribute to the roots of this iconic franchise, with locations like the Command Center, the Bandora Palace and Ernie’s Juice Bar lovingly recreated. A lot of care appears to have gone into getting this right for the fans, and everyone involved is clearly having a blast. And don’t even try to act like you didn’t get chills watching those Zords back in action.
Grade the special in our poll below, then read on as we break down the must-discuss moments from Once & Always. Are there any you’d add to our list? Drop a comment with your additions, along with your review of this long-awaited event.
The dimwitted duo from the original series didn’t technically reunite for this special, but we did catch a glimpse of their extremely punchable faces on a billboard for Skullovitch and Bulkmeier’s Bulk Food Co.
For what it’s worth, “Use your skull, buy in bulk!” is a brilliant business slogan.
Kat’s casual mention of her and Tommy having a son named J.J. probably threw some viewers for a loop, but it all adds up.
In Power Rangers Zeo‘s 1996 holiday episode, “A Season to Remember,” we saw elderly versions of Kat and Tommy celebrating Christmas (pictured here). And in Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel‘s 2018 celebration of the franchise’s then-25th anniversary, “Dimensions in Danger,” Tommy first mentioned having a son named J.J.
Following Zordon’s sacrifice during Power Rangers in Space, Billy has apparently been trying to piece together his mentor’s scattered particles. In fact, Billy’s extreme experiments are what enabled Rita Repulsa to reconstitute.
When Zordon sacrificed himself, the energy wave purified Rita, transforming her into the Mystic Mother, a powerful force for good. This new information suggests that, just as Rita’s dark essence was merely removed and not destroyed, it’s possible that other purified villains could also return in all their evil glory someday.
Speaking of Rita, we learned that her new robotic form is the result of her scattered particles taking over Alpha’s body. So when the Rangers battled — and ultimately destroyed — Rita, they were technically also killing one of their own. Yes, there have been many Alphas over the decades, but it’s still kind of sad when you think about it.
While they didn’t make traditional cameos (aka no actors were seen), the special included appearances by many Power Rangers from various seasons, all shrunken down to action-figure size for Rita’s devious purposes. Those Rangers included: Beast Morphers’ Red (Devon), Blue (Ravi) and Gold (Nate) Rangers; Dino Thunder’s Red (Conner) and White (Trent) Rangers; In Space’s Black (Carlos) and Yellow (Ashley) Rangers; Lost Galaxy’s Red (Leo), Blue (Kai) and Green (Damon) Rangers; Turbo’s Phantom Ranger; Wild Force’s Lunar Wolf Ranger (Merrick); and Zeo’s Yellow Ranger (Tanya).
Oh, you wanted a deep cut? How about Adam telling Billy that Cestria, his love interest from the planet Aquitar, still misses him?
Then again, no cut was deeper than this quick shot of Harvey Garvey’s grave. Oh, who’s Harvey, you ask? Why, just a talk show host who appeared in a single episode of the original series. This one was for the true heads.
Amy Jo Johnson (aka Kimberly, the original Pink Ranger) did not appear in the special, but Once & Always does end with a touching tribute to late cast members Thuy Trang (2001) and Jason David Frank (2022), complete with footage of a song Kimberly performed on the show in Season 2.
Hit PLAY on the video above to relive that moment.
It was cheesy and I loved every second of it.
That ending broke me! If you had told me i was gonna be crying because of Power Rangers in 2023, i wouldn’t have believed it. Such a touching ending song and their headstones.
It was cheesy, nostalgic, emotional and i loved every minute of it. I want more! Give it the Cobra Kai treatment!!
Already happend during the Franchise’s Disney Era. I recommend you go on the Power Ranger’s Youtube Channel and watch a Season titled Power Rangers Dino Thunder. It’s got Tommy Oliver, sorry… DR. Tommy Oliver as the mentor and a Black Ranger and a new crop of Rangers and it does hearken back to the Mighty Morphin’ Seasons.
The actor that portrayed Harvey Garvey was Kim Strauss, who voiced Ninjor in season 3. That was the bigger significance of that reference!
Definitely made me feel old. They all aged a lot. Which is fine and normal, so have I. It’s just so strange that JDF was the only one that stayed in shape.
its fine and normal but you’re calling them strange for not aging backwards. Make up your mind
I’m trying to be polite about saying they all had belly’s
Walter & David seemed in pretty decent shape. Walter was doing all those stunts pretty well. Only one I really noticed was Steve Cardenas.
Agreed Walter was in better shape than anyone. Steve looked chunky. I felt like when he first morphed in they were using the stuff in his hands to hide his stomach.
Also Easter egg
Adam & Aisha mentioned that they were battling the “Troobian empire” who are the bad guys of the SPD series, and are part of an organisation that has the initials SPA.
I don’t think the events of SPD have happened yet, so that was a nice touch
SPD itself is still coming up – but the flashback parts of it have already happened, including Kat and Doggie starting to build the Zords.
I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. And yes, i felt like a 9 years old watching the Original Megazord back in action.
I’m sorry but I will always be team Tommy and Kimberly. I was happy to see them in scenes together, even though it wasn’t the actors. It would have been nice if they could talk more. I’m sure they could’ve spliced together some dialogue from old episodes. I do like that Kim tried to save Tommy. Usually it’s the other way around. I know that they didn’t appear, but an update on what Kim, Jason and Tommy have been up to through dialogue of other characters would’ve been nice. We kind of know what Tommy’s life looks like although I’m going to imagine that he and Kim get back together because they can’t ignore their feelings. It’s a bit rough, but divorce happens and since it’s in my mind I can picture whatever I choose. I am glad they didn’t pair Kim with Skull like they apparently did in the comics. Thankfully that bit of canon was left out. I really enjoyed the special, but I thought all the rangers passed on their powers when they graduated high school so how and why are they still rangers in their 40s? That wasn’t explained. I do hope they make a follow up but I don’t know that they can get the gang together again and it might be hard without JDF since he is technically playing Kat’s husband.
Billy explained how he was able to retrieve the powers a bit when he was explaining how he made the secondary connections for Kat and Rocky, and the risks inherent in those.
*handwave at Billy* is in keeping with MMPR, just like RADBUG02.
He did explain a bit of the morphing grid, but I still don’t understand why Kim was the pink ranger when she passed her powers to Kat and why any of the OG were rangers when they passed on their powers to others as well. I missed how and why they got their morphers back. I’m not upset as I prefer the OG rangers above all, but an explanation would be nice and an update of all their lives through dialogue wouldn’t have been that difficult IMO. That said. I still give the special an A+ and want more. Lol.
They answered most of the questions we had about power restorations for legacy rangers in Dino Fury Season 2 when that team met the Morphin Masters.
Ok. Thanks. I am an OG rangers watcher. I watched every season through Lost Galaxy but have barely watched since then. With the exception of Dino Thunder because it had Tommy. Lol. I’m very behind on the story explanations, but I would be willing to bet that a large chunk of viewers are OG watchers that tuned in and have the same questions. Lol.
I’m convinced every Power Rangers series takes place on a different Earth in a big multi-verse where the morphing grid intersects and ties them all together. It didn’t bother me that timelines were a little confusing or folks should’ve given up their powers but suddenly went back to OG Rangers (The power coins with dinos). I enjoyed it for what it was and the tribute at the end was nice. Do I need to see more? Not really, but I’d watch it if they do. I was in the 3rd grade when Power Rangers premiered so it’s peak nostalgia for me.
Why why why did they opt for the truly terrible unfinished CGI at the end tho? Why not just use actors in Zord costumes like the original? They almost pulled it off but this detail was just so super lazy. Like they ran out of money and time.