It’s a bittersweet reunion as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers reassemble to take down a familiar foe in the new trailer for Netflix’s 30th anniversary special.
Premiering Wednesday, April 19, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always marks the return of some of the franchise’s earliest cast members — David Yost as Blue Ranger Billy Cranston, Walter Jones as Black Ranger Zack Taylor, Catherine Sutherland as Pink Ranger Kat Hillard, Steve Cardenas as Red Ranger Rocky DeSantos, Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 and Barbara Goodson as Rita Repulsa. Karan Ashley and Johnny Yong Bosch will also appear as Aisha Campbell and Adam Park, respectively.
But it’s one of the new characters introduced in the trailer that will likely have every fan talking: Charlie Kersh as Minh Kwan, aka the daughter of original Yellow Ranger Trini Kwan. Trini’s portrayer, Thuy Trang, died in 2001, and the film has also decided to write in Trini’s death, which appears to happen at the hand of Rita Repulsa. Will Minh take up her mother’s title and join the fight when Rita threatens them once again?
It’s also unclear how exactly the movie might pay tribute to Jason David Frank, the original Green-turned-White Ranger, who died in November 2022.
Meanwhile, Amy Jo Johnson — who played original Pink Ranger Kimberly Hart — took to Twitter to explain why she won’t be appearing in the reunion special: “For the record I never said no,” she tweeted earlier this year. “I just didn’t say yes to what was offered. But other fun stuff is in store! Looking forward to watching my friends kick ass!”
The Power Rangers franchise arrived Stateside in 1993, becoming an overnight phenomenon. Its 30th TV installment, Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, is expected to premiere on Netflix in late 2023.
Hit PLAY on the video above for your first look at Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, then drop a comment with your thoughts below.
They only got two of the original team? Why bother. No one ever cared for any of the replacements.
If that statement was a true statement then the show would’ve ended with all of the originals left.
Not to mention they could only get 3 of the original 6 anyway. 2 have passed away and 1 is having legal issues and likely couldnt travel so the only 1 they could’ve got was Amy Jo Johnson who they tried.
This was filmed before Jason David Frank died.
People tend to forget how short the original Rangers run was. The show premiered August 28, 1993.
Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and Thuy Trang last appeared October 25, 1994.
Even the movie had the replacement Rangers.
JDF was basically considered persona non grata with his fan-film stuff and his “Legend of the White Dragon” indie film that will be out later this year.
JDF was a Power Ranger legend, but he was paid respects many times. He came back for a full season a decade later and showed up in 3 specials outside of that. The last one was a celebration of him, where he morphed into all different Ranger colours he had and his Zord saved the day. Zack and Billy have never came back. Not even once. In fact, neither shot a final episode. Both Jason and Kimberly returned in the second film and Jason had an extra season and came back in two specials. Anyone watching this trailer and going “meh” isn’t a Power Rangers fan.
@Jordan I never said meh.
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Also, that stuff with Tommy and the Master Morpher Was in Super Ninja Steel and that aired nearly 5 years ago. In that time since then, he’d gone on to do a lot of unofficial fan-made projects and was trying to get his “Legend of the White Dragon” thing off the ground. And Tommy was never paid by Hasbro or Saban for the Lord Drakkon promotional video stuff, that came out of (then MMPR comics scribe) Kyle Higgins’ pocket.
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He’d done enough to kind of be unwelcome in the official area of things. Power Morphicon and other convention appearances weren’t sponsored by Hasbro or Saban as far as I know since the former is fan-run and technically not official. They were happy enough to make money off of his likeness, but the line was pretty much drawn to that.
Plus he also didn’t want to dp any more Rangers because he would hVe to cover up his tattoos
Who is no one you speak of…
I personally always preferred Aisha, Rocky, and Adam over the original three, each to their own.
The whole beauty of the Power Rangers is that each generation got their own team to fall in love with.
I was too young for the original, but watched from Power Rangers Turbo to Lost Galaxy so those are the characters that I care about. I’m sure other people would have similar stories or else the show wouldn’t have stayed on for 30 years
But I guess according to you, anyone under the age of say 35 doesn’t exist
“No one?”
Tell that to the countless generations of teams over the last 30 years. Each team after MMPR is considered a “replacement”. And each “replacement” has their own legion of fans/generations that were inspired by them.
My inner kid loved watching this trailer. Felt cheesy enough as the Power Rangers always used to be with a proper vfx update. Many easter eggs as well! Can’t wait!
30 years later, and Walter Jones barely looks a day older. Impressed that several of them seem to still be in shape to do their own out-of-costume stunts.
I hope Amy Jo Johnson makes some kind of cameo, but I will accept Rocky and Kat, they were still Mighty Morphin Rangers with Rocky being there for a LOT of the post Jason/Trini/Zack era.
She said on socials the other day she won’t be a part of it
I know it’s just a kids show, but curiously if how they’ll handle this in terms of continuity. Both Rita and Zedd were made human AND good! All those zords and powers they showed were destroyed!
Also I may be in the minority but I loooooved Kat. I think its the way she started out evil, it got me! (and the accent)
Could be that this Rita is from a different point in time before that happens.
The Green Ranger powers is probably the easiest to explain. Those powers were never actually destroyed. Just Tommy and the Rangers access to them. They reverted back to Rita’s possession and then ultimately , Zedd created the clone Tommy and gave him the Green Rangers powers.
There’s also been quite a bit of evidence (though not explicitly stated) that the while the means to access their Morphin powers may get destroyed or damaged, the powers themselves don’t. We do know at the very least, the powers have been restored as the Mighty Morphin team took part in the Legendary Battle on Super Megaforce. Plus Adam, Kat, Jason, Tommy, and Rocky all came back at various times using the Mighty Morphin powers.
As for Rita, I believe she’s known as Robo Rita in this special, implying she’s a robot. My theory is that the robot is possessed by the evil essence of Rita (prior to her turning good), this preserving the actual Rita’s ultimate fate. It’s similar to what they’re doing with Zedd as a clone in the latest season.
Someone, we don’t know who, built the new Rita and evil Rita’s spirit took the body. The REAL Rita became Mystic Mother in Mystic Force which hopefully gets mentioned!
The zords could be explained as the Morphin Masters (who have a recurring part in Dino Fury) brought them back. The Megazord was actually last seen in the a 2020 Beast Morphers teamup episode where Austin St. John returned while MMPR Black, Blue, Yellow and Pink never unmorphed or had voice actors.
This special will be the first time Kat has the Pterodactyl power coin while Rocky and Jason have shared Tyrannosaurus ever since Austin returned in 2002.
Who is this even for? The ten-year-olds watching Power Rangers thirty years ago are 40 now, and their kids are old enough to have outgrown the power ranger target audience.
Clearly not you if you have to ask. It’s for anyone interested in watching.
i’m guessing for people like me.
I’m 33 and I grow up with the 1st. generation, and i watched religiously ’till Power Rangers SPD.
I have a job, responsabilities, a boyfriend and lots of debts… you know, life, but I’M SUPER EXCITED FOR THIS!
Who is this for you ask?
PL said it best, clearly not you!
This is a generational show that has personally impacted 30 years of fans. For those of us that are not afraid to call themselves “Power Ranger” fans, which again is clearly not you!
This looks incredible! Thank you Netflix.
My only concern in this special is that it’s Canon that Tommy and Kat are married and have a son, JJ together. With JDF’s passing and kats being involved, I’m hoping for a decent dialog about Tommy and Kats lives. Likewise for what rocky and Zack did with their lives.
Amy Jo Johnson’s character Kimberly Hart’s elder age wouldn’t exist.
And still won’t show her face in the future.