SPOILER ALERT: This article references the new ‘Saban’s Power Rangers’ movie, including the post-credits scene. If you haven’t seen it yet, you may wish to turn back!
As was heavily rumored beforehand, in ‘Saban’s Power Rangers’, we learned that Zordon (Bryan Cranston) was the first alien Red Ranger sent to Earth to defend it during prehistoric times. But his team found themselves betrayed by one of their own, the Green Ranger, a.k.a. Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks). One by one, Rita strikes down the Rangers. Zordon is only saved by being digitally integrated into their immense spacecraft, but all of their Power Coins are left to be discovered by the next team of defenders, which ends up taking millions of years.
Presumably, Rita retained her Power Coin, but after her defeat in the movie, it appears that it will fall into the hands of a new Green Ranger. In the mid-credits sequence, there is a tease to Tommy Oliver joining the story. Tommy was, of course, the first Green Ranger, who originated as a sleeper agent of Rita’s, sent to dismantle the Power Rangers from within. Of course, he shook off Rita’s influence and became an ally of the Rangers and eventually their leader after morphing into the White Ranger in Season Three.
Jason David Frank played Tommy and is the biggest star to emerge from the franchise. He is the most iconic Ranger and has returned to the brand several times under different colors/guises. In addition to being the brooding bad boy in early episodes, he sparked a relationship with Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson), which was another iconic element of the show.
The post-credits scene of ‘Saban’s Power Rangers’ teased the introduction o f Tommy in the sequel and director Dean Israelite said:
“There’s a post-credits scene, so people should stay. It teased up the direction of what the next movie could be for people that know the brand it’s super exciting. There are so many ideas we’re kicking around in the direction of where the film leads you.”
But what if instead of T-O-M-M-Y, it was T-O-M-M-I or something similar? What if Tommy (Tommi) was a girl?
That’s what the core cast of the new ‘Rangers’ are thinking. Dacre Montgomery, who plays the new Jason the Red Ranger confided:
“A lot of the cast and I have discussed that we think it should be a girl. It makes it even three girls, three boys. It’s left blank. It’s a cliffhanger. Whoever you’re going to drop into that position — whether it’s a girl, it’s inevitably going to create drama. It’ll be interesting to drop that drama into it and see how we all relate to it and work with it.”
Of course that then opens a new can of worms. A romance between Kimberly and Jason was touched on in the movie, although according to Montgomery a lot of what was shot was cut out of the film to share the focus with the rest of the team. And it is BARELY hinted at that Trini (Becky G.) might be gay or bisexual. (Really, more fuss was made of that than needed to be.) If Tommy winds up being a female, will she wind up in a relationship with a fellow Ranger? If so, presumably Kimberly is out of the running. (Or is she?) Who will she wind up with? Trini? Or perhaps Jason, Zack or Billy? Or does she really even need to be romantically attached to one of her teammates?
Personally, I have no problem with a female Green Ranger, but in the movie, Trini is already shown as being an outsider with an edge and Kimberly is the pretty popular girl who “goes bad” and chops off about six inches of her hair while in detention. Whatever they do with Tommy– he or she– the “bad girl” role is filled. That means even more changes to the character. Hmmm…
What do you think? Would you like a female Green Ranger in ‘Power Rangers 2’?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
