In August 1993, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the first installment of the now beloved Power Rangers franchise, aired on Fox Kids. Though the superhero show, which followed a group of teenagers chosen to protect the fictitious Californian city Angel Grove, wrapped in 1996, it has been the subject of controversy in recent years — namely due to its casting of a Black actor to play the first Black ranger and an Asian actress to play the Yellow Ranger.
While appearing on the new Investigation Discovery docuseries Hollywood Demons, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers head writer Tony Oliver opened up about the show’s racially insensitive casting, describing it as “such a mistake,” Variety reported. Read on for what he said and other comments those involved in the show have made about its complicated legacy.
‘None of us’ were ‘thinking stereotypes’
In the Fox Kids series, actor Walter Emanuel Jones played Zack Taylor, the first Black Ranger, and Thuy Trang portrayed Trini Kwan, the first Yellow Ranger. While reflecting on these casting decisions, Oliver told Variety that “none of us [were] thinking stereotypes,” and the show went on to air for two seasons with “the Black character the Black Ranger and the Asian character the Yellow Ranger.”
Oliver said it wasn’t until “my assistant pointed it out in a meeting one day” that he realized the stereotypes at play when casting Jones as the Black Ranger and Trang as the Yellow Ranger.
“It was such a mistake,” he added.
Oliver explained that the Black ranger “seemed to have the swagger of the group” and the Yellow Ranger was “the peaceful one, who tends to be the conscience of the group.” When casting, they were on the hunt for actors who could portray those qualities believably, leading them to Jones and eventually Trang. Oliver said Trang “was not our original Yellow Ranger.” They first cast Audri Dubois, who left the show after a pay dispute. Trang was then added to the cast.
The docuseries also included camcorder footage taken on set by one of the show’s stunt coordinators in which cast members addressed the stereotype-inspired casting of Trang and Jones. The latter is even shown on camera saying, “My name’s Walter Jones, I play Zack. I’m Black, and I play the Black Ranger — go figure.”
Jones and Trang, as well as Austin St. John, who played the Red Ranger, left the show in its second season after pay disputes. Jones was replaced by Korean American actor Johnny Yong Bosch and Karan Ashley, who is Black and Mexican, replaced Trang.
Show co-creator Shuki Levi blamed childhood on stereotype casting
Oliver isn’t the first person involved in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers who has called the show’s casting controversial. In 2013, show co-creator Shuki Levi explained to Complex that the casting was not “intentional at all” and goes back to their upbringing.
“It wasn’t intentional at all,” he told the outlet. “At that time, Haim [Saban] and I were new to this country. We didn’t grow up in the same environment that exists in America with regards to skin color. We grew up in Israel, where being a Black person is like being any kind of color. It’s not something we talked about all the time. It wasn’t a big issue. And that’s also how I felt in Paris, where we lived for seven years before coming here.”
Pink Ranger Amy Jo Johnson added that it didn’t bother Jones, who she said often made jokes about the show’s casting.
“It’s hilarious,” she told Complex. “Walter Jones used to crack good-humored jokes about that. I think it’s funny if it was done unintentionally by the big bosses. But really? Come on. It wouldn’t happen today.”
