Power Rangers

These days, if you reboot a franchise, you give the original cast members a couple of seconds of screen time. It’s pretty much a win-win scenario as far as producers are concerned. Fans who believe that sequels and remakes are heresy will be somewhat satiated by the involvement of original cast members, while newcomers won’t have any idea why the crowd around them is cheering for that background character. Sure, it’s fan service, but let’s be honest: some properties need a little bit of fan service more than others.

If you take a look at the official Power Rangers photos released by Lionsgate to this point, it’s easy to see the pattern they have in mind. First came a group shot of the cast out of costume, then came a group shot of the cast in costume. This past week, Lionsgate released individual character posters on its Instagram channel for each of the new cast members, as well as a new photo of Elizabeth Banks in her Rita Repulsa get-up. I’m not a betting man, but if this pattern holds, I’d keep an eye out for some individualized photos of the Power Rangers costumes before too long

“It’s morphin’ time!” (Repeats ad nauseum until the heat death of the universe.)

Just in case you weren’t sure, this is just your regular reminder that the live-action Power Rangers movie is not a prolonged April Fools joke and is actually something that is happening. For real. While we’ve heard a lot of talk about the movie, today we have our first photo from the film with Elizabeth Banks as the villainous Rita Repulsa...

Like Ben Affleck, Elizabeth Banks is proving that just because you’re a successful director, doesn’t mean you can’t take on the occasional silly role in a superhero movie. Affleck went from winning an Oscar to Batman vs. Superman and now Banks is going from Pitch Perfect 2 to the live-action Power Rangers movie, where she’ll star as the villainous Rita Repulsa.

Most 90s kids were Power Rangers fans. Even adults in the 90s enjoyed the entertainment value provided by the show, movies, comics, and everything else. The Power Rangers continued on through never versions of the show, and new movies. But now, filmmaker Adi Shankar has created the most intense evolution of the franchise...