Netflix’s Power Rangers reunion teaser is bittersweet nostalgia

It’s hard to talk about Power Rangers history without getting a little sad. Power Rangers: Once & AlwaysNetflix will be reuniting some cast members in a special Netflix episode that serves as a stark reminder. Mighty Morphin Power RangersFor a 30-year anniversary celebration.

Promoting the video Once & Always doesn’t divulge much detail, just a few select quotes about what it’s like to get the band back together. It’s both exciting in its sincerity and bittersweet between the lines, because it’s hard to talk about a reunion for a franchise as closely followed as Power Rangers and not think about who isn’tThey are all there, and, sad to say, they’re all who can’t be.

This cast includes actors who were part of the show’s production. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers era: David Yost and Walter Emanuel Jones, the original Blue and Black Rangers, along with Steve Cardenas, Johnny Yong Bosch, Karan Ashley, and Catherine Sutherland — who played the second Red, Black, Yellow, and Pink Rangers, respectively. Entertainment Weekly reported that Charlie Kersh will be joining the crew as Minh (the daughter of Trini the Yellow Ranger). Kersh’s character is likely a tribute to the late Thuy Trang, who played Trini and died in a car accident in 2001.

In the brief teaser, there’s footage of Yost and Jones in costume, as well as Ranger group shots that notably include the Green Ranger — a character only ever played by the late Jason David Frank, who was in many ways the face of Power Rangers up until his death by suicide last November. The video leaves Frank’s involvement up to speculation, but if a 2018 tweet by David Yost is any indication, the idea of a Netflix reunion special has been floated before, and it’s possible, but not guaranteed, that Frank may appear posthumously.

As successful as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would be, spawning a mega franchise that would regularly reinvent itself for 29 seasons — the 30th, Power Rangers – Cosmic Fury debuts on Netflix (its first season as a streaming exclusive) this Fall — the young cast that started it all would be haunted by an air of tragedy long after they left the series. Yost was the only one to finally embrace the Ranger heritage after telling the world in 2010 about his struggle with homophobic harassment.

Power Rangers are a topic that is worthy of nostalgic reflection because it contains both triumph and tragedy. Adult perspective is welcome. Mighty Morphin Power RangersYou will have to deal with its darkness and its unlikely successes as well. The special’s name, Once & AlwaysThe Power Ranger motto, “Once a Ranger. Always a Ranger,” is the slang for. It’s the perfect summation of the franchise, a bittersweet bit of comic book storytelling made real — and the gift that is also a curse.