Classic Power Rangers Moments We Definitely Won’t See in The Movie

The long-running Power Rangers series is chock-full of nostalgic, campy, and epic moments; here is a handful we definitely won’t see in the movie.

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Ever since the dark and gritty Power Rangers short film starring James Van Der Beek and Katee Sackhoff hit the web, fans of the franchise have been hungry for a more grounded iteration of the teens with attitude. And that is exactly what has been promised by the promotional material for the upcoming big screen reboot. No, this upcoming feature length Power Rangers adaptation does not look be quite as grim as Joseph Kahn’s aforementioned short, but it does look to be a far departure from the campy, lighthearted tone of the long-running television series.

For that reason, there are a handful of classic moments that we most likely will not see in the upcoming film. Sure, there are bound to be numerous callbacks and Easter eggs hidden throughout; there is likely plenty of fan service on the way as well. That said, there are more than a few fan-favorite storylines and scenes that we highly doubt will make the final cut.

Here are 15 Classic Power Rangers Moments We Definitely Won’t See in the Movie.

15 15 Rita Emerges from a Space Dumpster

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ inaugural episode (and the pre-show theme for virtually every episode for the next few seasons) reveal the villainous origins of Rita Repulsa and company as they emerge from a “space dumpster” after unwittingly being discovered by a couple of overly adventurous astronauts. After struggling to lift a giant manhole cover on the moon, the two unsuspecting travelers realize that they have unearthed something truly disturbing.

As much as we would really like to see Elizabeth Banks’ Rita Repulsa emerge from the primordial trash of the moon’s garbage dump, we do not really see how this origin fits in with the tone of the film’s promotional material. The franchise itself is inherently a bit goofy, but it appears – again, judging by the movie’s various trailers and television spots – that this big screen reboot is going to take a relatively more grounded approach to the Rangers as well as their respective villains, Rita Repulsa most certainly included.

14 Zordon Defeated

In the franchise’s first feature length film, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, Rita and the rest of the series’ major baddies awaken an ancient evil, the nefarious and formidable Ivan Ooze. By infiltrating the Ranger’s lair and greatly weakening the team’s mentor, Ooze proved to be one the most dangerous villains the team has ever encountered.

By delivering a striking blow to the mighty and wise Zordon, both the Rangers and fans are served a truly emotional moment, a moment that only works due to a long history with both the team as well as their sage-like leader. The teens and their mentor had built a relationship with each other and with fans over the course of multiple seasons and countless episodes by this point, but moviegoers will first be introduced to both the Rangers and Zordon when the picture makes its way to theaters later this month.

13 Power Rangers vs Frankenstein’s Monster

Over the course of hundreds of episodes, the Power Rangers, in all their respective forms, have faced off against virtually countless monsters of the week. There are probably hundreds of characters that could be substituted for this entry, but due to copyright issues alone, the Power Rangers battle against Frankenstein’s Monster manages to crack the list.

With the rise of the Monster Movie Universe (continuing later this year with The Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise), we would not expect to see the likes of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, or any of the other countless creature feature stars in development over at Universal Pictures either. Great moments like this were good fun in the television series, but likely have no place in the Power Rangers film franchise, especially not in the first entry to this rebooted saga. There are plenty of fan-favorite villains for writers to call upon before they are forced to seek out knockoffs of other well-known properties.

12 Food Fight

Again, like the virtually countless waves of unforgettable, wacky villains, there is almost an equal number of purely campy episodes. There is simply is an inherent silliness to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (in addition to the subsequent series), but there is arguably no episode more ridiculous than “Food Fight.”

Essentially, the teens with attitude organize a food fair in an effort to raise funds for local playground equipment. However, the event is disrupted by a food fight instigated by Angel Grove High’s own fan-favorite, mischievous duo, Bulk and Skull. Meanwhile, Rita orders a gluttonous pig to eat all the earth’s food simply because she has a bad case of food poisoning.

As stated earlier, there are plenty of ridiculously fun episodes throughout the franchise’s historically long run, however, judging by the tone of the trailers, the upcoming film looks to distance itself from much of the original series’ campiness.

11 Giant Pizza

Okay, so “Food Fight” might have been an extremely campy, fun, and ridiculous episode from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, but one of the franchise’s subsequent series – Power Rangers Turbo – takes the craziness to a whole different level with their season five episode, “Trouble by the Slice.”

Without divulging too far into this absolutely trippy episode synopsis, let’s just say that things get pretty weird, pretty fast. Long story short, a restaurant mascot comes alive, turns evil, and attempts to bake the Rangers into a giant pizza – you know, that old trope.

As much as fans may (or may not) want to see this story on the big screen, the world is perhaps not ready for a feature length adaptation of “Trouble by the Slice.” This story is not nearly as campy as it is truly bizarre, but still, the omission of this classic moment in the upcoming film is probably a safe bet, to say the least.

10 Rita and Zedd’s (un)Holy Matrimony

An ultra-silly episode finds the villainous duo of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd joined together in unholy matrimony. The two baddies are generally found at odds with each other throughout the series, so in an attempt to control Lord Zedd, Rita beguiles her unsuspecting cohort with a love potion. As is always the case, however, things do not go according to plan.

Lord Zedd was simply too powerful to be controlled. Although, he did end up falling for Rita after all. During this period of the show, the two worked together for a brief season and offered the Rangers a bit more of a challenge which resulted in some of the series’ most beloved episodes. The potion is later removed from Lord Zedd, but to everyone’s surprise, it was revealed that this intimidating antagonist had feelings for Rita all along.

It has been rumored that Lord Zedd will, in fact, appear in the Power Rangers big screen reboot, but judging by the picture’s promotional material, we would not bet on seeing a whole lot of this character come late March, and certainly in a rehash of this wedding scene.

9 Rita’s Relatives

Everyone knows that one friend or family member who is kind of an ignoramus (for lack of a better term). For Rita Repulsa, this comes in the form of her idiot brother Rito Revolto, and why they have different surnames, we do not know. Rito makes an appearance in several episodes, causing trouble for his sister and brother-in-law Lord Zedd. That being said, the dunce proves himself as a capable fighter as he is responsible for the destruction of the Ranger’s Thunderzords and their respective powers.

As simultaneously menacing and dimwitted as Rito Revolto is, this character seems like a bit of campy fun that the big screen simply is not ready for yet. He is an entertaining character, but he simply does not fit the direction of this rebooted series (based on what we know now), so we would be hard pressed to bet on this ancillary character (or any of Rita’s relatives) making any sort of appearance, either in the immanent film or even in its prospective sequels.

8 Bulk and Skull

The aforementioned duo, Bulk and Skull, are Angel Grove High School’s resident bullies, and yet, they are often the butt of the joke. Both Bulk and Skull repeatedly attempt to make Jason and the rest of the Rangers look foolish while simultaneously making advances on the team’s female members. The two mischievous students are nearly always unsuccessful and are usually made to look like fools themselves.

If the Power Rangers’ handful of trailers have proven anything, it is that this new group of Rangers gets bullied a lot. Angel Grove High School kind of seems like an intimidating place to go to school, and while we could certainly see an adaptation of Bulk and Skull playing a role in the torment of young students, do not expect them to be anything like they were in the original television series. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers operated with a certain level of lovable silliness – of which Bulk and Skull were a major part – but that does not appear to be in line with this darker incarnation.

7 Passing of the Torch

Some of the wackiest moments from the entire franchise take place during Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ second season. Due to some contractual disagreements between a few of the actors, a couple of the Rangers were unavailable during several episodes. But rather than writing some narrative reason for the missing Rangers into the script, old stock footage of the missing characters was utilized in certain scenes to fill in the gaps. Needless to say, both the actors and their respective characters were eventually replaced.

Despite fans being initially displeased with the slew of new faces (especially Rocky), the “passing of the torch” episode in which the original Rangers said their respective goodbyes is widely considered a fan-favorite. Still, if there is going to be a “baton passing” of sorts in the film reboot, we would expect that it would occur in future titles should Lionsgate and company decide to do so. Simply put, fans have yet to truly get to know this new crew of Rangers, so we doubt a changing of the guard will be taking place anytime soon.

6 Mighty Morphin Mutants

“Mighty Morphin Mutants” – an episode in which the teens face off against a shapeshifting baddie and his Power Ranger lookalikes – is easily one of the original series’ all time, fan-favorite entries. It should be noted that evil Rangers, or evil twins rather, is a storyline that the writers have elected to revisit numerous times, but “Might Morphin’ Mutants” remains the very best version.

The evil twin storyline is not only a popular trope for the Power Rangers television series, but it is also a common, albeit fun crutch for numerous other programs. Despite its popularity, however, this particular plot device does not generally make it to the big screen all that often. It is honestly an overused television trope, and for that reason, we believe moviegoing audiences will not be treated to evil Power Rangers on the silver screen anytime soon.

5 Power Rangers vs Ninja Turtles

It was recently announced that the Rangers would be taking on the Justice League in a brief comic book run, but this is not the first time the team has faced off against other heroes. Back when Fox Kids was airing both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation as well as Power Rangers: Space, the feisty teens squared off against a squad of mind-controlled Ninja Turtles on a distant planet.

We probably do not have to go into great detail as to why this particular moment will not be in the upcoming reboot. In fact, fans of the respective franchises should be grateful that this crossover ever happened at all. Companies are often protective of their respective properties (especially the successful ones), and shared universes in Hollywood is a relatively new phenomenon.

Stories such as the Rangers taking on The Justice League or even the Ninja Turtles are probably best left to the comics for now. But who knows, that is exactly what we said about The Avengers back in the day, and now the heroic team-up movies stand among some of the highest grossing film franchises in the history of cinema.

4 The Rise and Fall of Tommy

Tommy Oliver, aka the original Green Ranger as portrayed by Jason David Frank is perhaps the most iconic Power Ranger of all time. In the original series, Tommy is introduced as a villain sent by Rita and company to destroy the Rangers once and for all. Tommy gives the teens just about all they can handle for a few episodes, but he eventually joins forces with the team after being defeated.

The evil Green Ranger saga is arguably the best story arc of the entire original series. That being said, it is fairly doubtful that they will include this saga in this film judging by the trailers that have been shown thus far. This is not to say that Tommy won’t necessarily make an appearance at some point during the movie, but if he does, we expect something more in line with a cameo or a post credit scene rather than any sort of significant role.

3 Tommy’s Inner Battle

Perhaps what made Tommy an unequivocal fan-favorite was the character’s depth and complexity. Aside from simply being the resident badass, the Ranger started his journey as a villain, only to eventually be defeated and join forces with the home team. Of course, the character’s story was not done with yet.

Tommy still had the demons of his past to deal with, but rather than this inner battle being merely metaphysical, the Green Ranger literally came face to face with his most formidable opponent, himself. This culminated in one of the greatest Power Rangers episodes ever penned and perhaps served as the beginning of solidification for the legacy of Jason David Frank’s character.

We think it stands to reason that, if “The Rise and Fall of Tommy” won’t be making an appearance in this upcoming film, neither will his subsequent inner battle – fingers crossed for a Jason David Frank cameo, however.

2 Zords Destroyed

The Power Ranger’s giant mechs, more commonly referred to as Zords, are very important to both the Rangers as well as the franchise’s fans. Some of the most heartfelt moments of the entire series come when the Power Zords are destroyed. That being said, we would not expect that this moment would make it to the big screen (at least not this early in the film reboots) simply due to the fact that the Rangers and moviegoing audiences alike are just getting to know this new crop of Zords. Their destruction would not hold near the same emotional weight as it did in the original television series given the fact we have not spent much time with them yet.

Destroying the Megazords for Power Rangers’ fans feels an awful lot like destroying the Enterprise in Star Trek – albeit maybe not to the same extent. Still, this is a moment that must be earned and is likely much too bold (or ill-advised) a move to make in the first feature length film of this rebooted series.

1 Red Ranger Team Up

In a later Power Rangers Wild Force episode entitled “Forever Red,” all of the Red Rangers from the original saga moving forward are featured in a full-on, fan-favorite team up. Andros, the Red Ranger from Power Rangers in Space, catches word of an impending attack on Earth and contacts Tommy, who later served as a Red Ranger in Power Rangers Zeo. Dr. Tommy Oliver – yes, he later became a doctor – then contacted the other 10 team leaders from the past decade and brought them together to fight the forces of evil. Did this make a lick of canonical sense? No. Was it completely badass? Yes.

We probably do not have to go into much detail as to why this particular moment will not be making its way to the big screen in either this upcoming film or even potential sequels. Luckily for fans, however, writers of the television series do not appear shy about their desire to gather together Rangers of the past for an awesome one-off adventure, so we likely have not yet seen the last of these fun collaborations.

Which classic Power Rangers moments do you think will fail to reach the big screen? Make sure to let us hear them in the comments section.