The Power Rangers have been assembled, but what threat will they be facing? Well, despite conflicting reports, it looks as if the new ‘Power Rangers’ movie will be a reboot of the original incarnation of the show. In keeping with that, the Big Bad will be none other than Rita Repulsa, the witch that plagued the teenage heroes during the first two seasons. And the part has been officially cast, with Elizabeth Banks taking the role.
Rita was played by numerous actors on the original version, starting with Machiko Soga, who played the role (originally named Bandora) on ‘Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger’ the show which was mashed up with new American footage to make up ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’. After the second season, Carla Perez assumed the role in newly shot American footage, while Julia Cortez assumed the role in the 1995 movie spinoff.
Elizabeth Banks is perhaps best known to sci fi fans as Effie Trinket in the ‘Hunger Games’ movies, but she also played Betty Brant in the ‘Spider-Man’ movies, voiced Wyldstyle in ‘The LEGO Movie’ (and in the video game ‘LEGO Dimensions’) and produced and directed ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ and the upcoming ‘Pitch Perfect 3’, in which she also acted as Gail, one of the commentators of the vocal a capella competitions opposite Michael Hitchcock.
You may also recognize her from ’30 Rock’, ‘The 40 Year-Old Virgin’, ‘Zack and Miri Make A Porno’, ‘Wet Hot American Summer’, ‘Magic Mike XXL’ and ‘Modern Family’, or recognize her voice from ‘Robot Chicken’, ‘The Family Guy’, ‘American Dad’, ‘Moonbeam City’ and ‘Phineas and Ferb’.
In ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’, Rita Repulsa was a sorceress whose long white hair was molded into large horn-like appendages, rocked a cone bra to put Madonna to shame and favored tooling around on a flying Penny Farthing bicycle. She also dispatched various monsters to crush “Angel Grove,” the fictional town which the title heroes called home.
The new movie, ‘Saban’s Power Rangers’ will be directed by Dean Israelite. Banks joins Dacre Montgomery as the Red Ranger, Naomi Scott as the Pink Ranger, Ludi Lin as the Black Ranger, R.J. Cyler as the Blue Ranger and Becky Gomez as the Yellow Ranger. It is as yet unknown if they will share the same names as the original Rangers or if these will be new heirs to the classic franchise.
The movie attacks on Jan 13, 2017.
Will Banks make a good Rita? What else would you like to see in this movie?
Source: Comic Book Resources
