‘Power Rangers’ was a big screen update of ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’, the original incarnation of the long-running kids’ TV series. It hit theaters early this summer, but sadly didn’t perform so well, throwing plans for several sequels into question. Whether the film franchise carries on or not is unsure, but playing a superhero definitely helped empower one of the film’s stars. ‘Power Rangers’ broke new ground by recasting Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger, as autistic and Trini, the Yellow Ranger, as possibly bisexual or even gay.
The film’s daring to explore new ground, inspired Becky G., the actor who portrayed Trini in the film, to explore new areas in her other career, as a pop singer. Becky G. has been releasing music since 2012 but hasn’t had major crossover success. Her single 2014’s ‘Shower’ is her highest charting U.S. Pop single, peaking at #16 on the Billboard charts. She has had much greater success on the Latin charts, recently hitting #3 with her single ‘Mayores’ featuring Bad Bunny. She has also collaborated with artists such as Pitbull, Kesha, Jessie J., Austin Mahone and Cody Simpson and had a recurring role on the television musical drama ‘Empire’.
With the future of the ‘Power Rangers’ films in question, Becky G. is re-focusing on her music and has summoned the might of the sabretooth tiger to venture into an untested area:
“It all started with [my co-starring role in] Power Rangers. I learned so much from filming the movie that it re-inspired me on an artistic level, and it’s really what made me go into Spanish music. I figured, “What the hell? I’m trying something completely new in the acting world, my first feature film.” So it gave me the balls to try something new in my music.”
“Although I’m very proud to be Latina and I’m proud of where I come from, [singing in Spanish] was always one of my biggest fears. It might be because I watched the movie Selena too many times — when her dad says, “You’re either too Mexican for the Americans or too American for the Mexicans. You can’t be in the middle.” That part stuck with me, because I’ve lived my whole life in the middle. When people say, “I’m going to cross over,” I realized, “No, I am the crossover. I’m one foot on one side, and one foot on the other.” It’s scary to walk that bridge, because you never know if you’re going to be accepted into the community as an artist the way you would hope.”
The original ‘Power Rangers’ series did not include a Hispanic Ranger and none of the shows have included an openly LGBTQ character. Becky G. (née Gomez) was the trailblazer there. Earlier this year, prior to the film’s release, she stated:
“It is an honor. It’s something that I was very excited about and, as an actress, there’s nothing [more] that I could have asked for… The truth is with something like that, you don’t just wake up and know. It’s a process. And so, as time goes by, if we make Power Rangers 2, 3, 4 … I’m excited to see how she grows.”
Lionsgate has not officially pronounced the ‘Power Rangers’ franchise as dead, so there is still a chance that Becky G. could return as Trini the Yellow Ranger in additional big screen exploits, along with her costars R.J. Cyler, Ludi Lin, Dacre Montgomery and Naomi Scott, plus an uncast Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger, who was teased in the first film.
‘Power Rangers’ is currently available on all home video formats. Would you like to see more?
Source: Billboard