An adrenaline-charged trailer for Power Rangers released on Thursday revealed more about how the big-screen reboot will be different from the series that became a staple for ‘90s kids.
The trailer — which also shows for the first time Megazord, Goldar, the Putty Patrol, Alpha 5 (Bill Hader), and Zordon (Bryan Cranston) — illustrates just how much the film’s creators wanted to change the 2017 Power Rangers universe from the show that debuted in 1993. Here are three big changes for the epic story.
3. The Command Center is now a … spaceship.
The base of operations for the Power Rangers, as well as where Zordon and his robotic assistant Alpha 5 reside, was originally a remote station out in the Angel Grove desert. (The Brandeis-Bardin Campus of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles served as the Command Center’s exterior.)
Now, as teased back at New York Comic Con in October, the Command Center is now a sprawling spaceship ripped straight out of a modern sci-fi movie.
Before the events of the TV show, Zordon and Rita waged war in a battle of good versus evil until Zordon locked Rita away, where she and her minions were kept for 10,000 years. At some point, Zordon arrived on Earth and set up shop in Angel Grove, waiting for the day evil returns.
The Command Center is now a huge spaceship in the 'Power Rangers' movie.
In the two-part episode “Wild West Rangers” from Season 2, a time-traveling Kimberly — stuck in the 1800s — sought help from Zordon and Alpha 5 in the Command Center more than a hundred years before she’d even be born.
How much the film is keeping these origins remains unclear, but now that the Command Center is a spaceship, it makes more sense how Zordon — who hails from the alien planet Eltar — may have landed on Earth. As Trini (Becky G.) jokes in the new trailer, she and her new friends found a spaceship underground to become superheroes.
2. “Recruit a team of five, over-bearing, over-emotional humans!”
How the Angel Grove teens get the Power Coins and become Power Rangers in the film is also different from the series. In the pilot episode, “Day of the Dumpster,” Rita’s first attack on Angel Grove was the inciting incident that forced Zordon to call upon five “over-bearing, over-emotional” humans to become heroes.
“No, not teenagers!” Alpha 5 cried out.
In the film, it looks like the Rangers will discover the power on their own.
1. Zordon’s mythical past has been possibly revealed.
In the original Mighty Morphin, there were several instances when Zordon’s history as a mentor to older generations of Power Rangers were brought up. In the 1995 movie, the 6,000-year-old Ivan Ooze remarked: “Power Rangers, huh? So Zordon’s still using a bunch of kids to do his dirty work.”
The new film appears to have kept Zordon’s ancient history as a mentor for the forces of good. “Power Rangers were a legion of warriors,” Zordon booms in the new Command Center. “You must become those legion of warriors.” Expect a fun Rocky-esque training montage in the movie.
Check out the trailer below.
Saban’s Power Rangers will be released March 24, 2017.
