Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always might make me cry
For as unapologetically cheesy as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers could be, the hit ‘90s TV series has left behind a bittersweet legacy, one that the first real trailer for Netflix’s reunion special Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always is fully leaning into. It’s time to suit up and do all the moves, but also maybe cry a little.
This is one of the surprising things about the plot of the trailer, which is, on its face, pretty silly stuff. Original villain Rita Repulsa is back in a robot body with a dastardly plan to go back in time and take out the Power Rangers before they become Rangers, so Billy (David Yost) and Zack (Walter Emanuel Jones), the original Blue and Black Rangers, reunite with the Red and Pink Rangers from the second era of Mighty Morphin, Rocky (Steve Cardenas) and Kat (Catherine Sutherland) to stop her.
With this setup, Once and Always ends up being a reminder of what’s been lost along the way, as the new character introduced in the trailer, Minh (Charlie Kersh) is revealed to be the daughter of Trini, the Yellow Ranger (the late Thuy Trang) who was killed by Rita. Also, while it’s unexplained in the trailer, footage of the Green Ranger also implies that there may be some form of tribute to the late Jason David Frank, who died by suicide last year.
Above all, the trailer looks earnest — something that a niche franchise like Power Rangers, which at times had a less than lustrous history, deserves in a 30th anniversary special.
You can catch Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always on Netflix when it premieres on April 19.
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