Trivia / Power Rangers (2017)

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• Acting for Two: The same actress portrays both the Cenozoic Yellow Ranger and the jewellery clerk.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Dean Israelite told Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank that they were just playing regular civilians in their cameo towards the end. They however decided to channel their original characters so that when Angel Grove reacts to the Power Rangers, they are noticeably sporting looks of pride.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Aside from his connection to the original series, the reason Bryan Cranston took the role of Zordon was that he never had a superhero/sci-fi movie role before.^note His role in John Carter was limited to the American Civil War scenes, and in Total Recall (2012) he was the Big Bad.
• Box Office Bomb: The film beat expectations with $40 million in domestic box office in its opening weekend (debuting at #2, right underneath Beauty and the Beast), but experienced huge drop-offs of 50%-65% in multiple successive weekends. This was due to heavy competition from newcomers The Boss Baby, Ghost in the Shell, and The Fate of the Furious, as well as Beauty's sustained success and competition from recently-released box office juggernauts Logan and Kong: Skull Island. The film's mixed reviews and perceived failure to appeal to viewers outside the Power Rangers fanbase didn't help, either. The film ultimately grossed $85.3 million domestically and $140 million worldwide against a production budget of $105 million. As the low international receipts imperiled Lionsgate's ability to sell the international distribution rights for any sequel in order to limit their risk, this placed sequel prospects for the film in serious jeopardy (though in an attempt by fans to save the potential film series, merchandising and home video sales skyrocketed in the following months). An interview with the director pinned the blame on the film being PG-13, feeling that its Darker and Edgier aspect was what ultimately hurt the film. It is also believed that the film’s failure may be at least partly what led Saban to sell the franchise in May 2018. In a July 2019 reddit AMA session promoting the release of Stranger Things 3, Dacre Montgomery confirmed that Hasbro has opted to reboot the film franchise, with film partner Paramount being brought in to co-produce and release the new reboot.
• California Doubling: The movie was filmed in Vancouver, but takes place (presumably) in California. Funnily enough, the original series was actually filmed in California (save for a brief spot in 1994 when the show was filmed in Sydney around the same time as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie).
• Channel Hop: Par for the course of the franchise as a whole. Being produced during the original Saban era, the first two movies were produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, which Saban Entertainment was closely associated with back then. Being made during the Neo-Saban era, this film was made and released by Saban Brands' current partner, Lionsgate.
• Costume Backlash: Elizabeth Banks had some difficulties with the green contacts she had to wear as Rita; they mostly blinded her, making it difficult to manoeuvre around all the electrical cables on set. The staff she had to carry was also extremely heavy, and she feared she might break her arm with it.
• Creator Backlash:
  • David Yost and Walter Emanuel Jones, who played the original Blue and Black Rangers respectively, were overall not too thrilled about the film. Jones cited the lack of the famous "hip-hop-kido" martial arts style his Zack employed on the original series (and was annoyed that the entire cast weren't given cameos), while Yost was unimpressed with the morphing sequence (particularly the "It's Morphin' Time!" call, which he called "lackadaisacal") and had various issues with the Megazord, including the fact that the new rangers were in separate cockpits rather than together in the head. Yost did, however, have nothing but praise for R.J. Cyler's performance as his old character Billy, as well as the way the character was reimagined. He also approved of Becky G's portrayal as the reimagined Trini, which makes sense given her Adaptational Sexuality in the film.
  • As he served as a producer, Haim Saban was overall supportive of the film, but expressed disappointment at the scene where Rita kills Billy, because, according to an interview with director Dean Israelite, he doesn't like seeing his characters die. This is especially odd, as Power Rangers Lost Galaxy killed off three Rangers and two were revived much later, like Billy and Zordon himself had died and been revived in the 1995 movie.
  • Austin St. John also expressed disappointment in the reboot, particularly the film versions of the Zords, which he called "Chihuahua Zords" and likened to Chia Pets due to their smaller stature than their series counterparts. He also felt that the film should've given Jason David Frank and Amy Jo Johnson a better cameo appearance, saying he would only be willing to cameo in any future sequels if it amounted to more than "three seconds with a cell phone at the end." He gave the movie's rendition of Zordon his approval, however, as well as the scene where his old character Jason smacks the bully harassing Billy in detention.
  • If his comments at Power Morphicon 6^note skip to 20:08 in the video are anything to go by, Johnny Yong Bosch^note Adam, the second MMPR Black Ranger did not like this movie's iteration of Goldar.
  • Kerrigan Mahan, Goldar’s original voice actor, was not at all happy with this adaptation, calling the film “absolutely horrific”, the acting “ghastly”, and the new version of his character “absurd”.
• Dawson Casting: As was the case with the original series, all of the principal actors here are much older than their characters. During filming, Becky G was the youngest at 19, and Ludi Lin was the oldest at 28. Dacre Montgomery, R.J. Cyler, and Naomi Scott were all in their early 20s.
• Deleted Role: Kimberly's parents featured more prominently in the scene where Jason is dropped off at detention, with both of them lecturing her in the car for a few minutes. The scene was deleted, and the parents are only shown from far away reacting to her haircut right before Billy introduces himself to Jason.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Naomi Scott actually cut off her hair in the scene when Kimberly does so in the girls' bathroom. Evidently Naomi liked the hairstyle, as she kept it for a good while after the film's release.
• Fake American:
  • Dacre Montgomery is Australian, Naomi Scott is British and Ludi Lin is Chinese-Canadian.
  • Gary Chalk, who plays Captain Bowen, is British-Canadian.
• Fake Mixed Race: Possibly. Zack's mother is shown to also be Asian, yet he still has the same surname as he does in the show for unexplained reasons, meaning it's possible his unseen dad is Caucasian. If true, then he fits this, as Ludi Lin is of Chinese descent through both parents.
• Hey, It's That Place!:
  • That's the same high school as in Smallville.
  • Angel Grove's main street looks a lot like Storybrooke's, as used in Once Upon a Time.
• In Memoriam: Possibly an unintentional one, but one of Trini's wardrobes has the number '1973' on it. The late Thuy Trang, who played the original Trini, was born in 1973.
• Meaningful Release Date: Most likely coincidental, but the movie was released almost exactly on the 20th anniversary of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.
• Method Acting: Ludi Lin prepared for the role by visiting his old high school and passing himself off as a transfer student. Due to looking much younger than his real age, he actually managed to blend in completely convincingly until one of his old teachers recognized him.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • A shot of what appears to be Trini's locker covered in graffiti. This appears in the deleted scenes, where it's actually Kimberly's locker.
  • A kiss between Kimberly and Jason. Word of God is that they cut it to focus on Kim's redemption as opposed to a romance.
  • Zack doing a solo test jump. He still references it when they show up at the quarry again.
• The Other Darrin:
  • While it's very likely there will be changes in the Japanese dub, this is especially relevant in the case of both Rita Repulsa and Zordon, as their respective voice actors who voiced them (Machiko Soga and Taro Arakawa, the former also played Bandora, her Japanese equivalent in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger) died years ago. In Rita's case, she's voiced in the dub by Miyuki Sawashiro and Zordon by movie actor Arata Furuta.
  • The Latin American Spanish dub also suffered a meta-cast shift, as, unlike the previous movies who were dubbed in Mexico (as well like the TV series since Power Rangers Samurai and all the rest of the series pre-Disney era), this one was dubbed in a Spanish-speaking studio in Los Angeles, CA. by both Mexican, Latin American and Hispanic voice actors alike.
• Playing Against Type: Elizabeth Banks was more likely to first show up as the 'cool girl' in comedies and, while she had gone Denser and Wackier as Effie in The Hunger Games, the Camp involved was in service of a lovable character. As a result, playing a Cold Ham supervillain like Rita was a different step for her.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Jason David Frank initially grew his hair out long to look similar to his old hairstyle as Tommy for his cameo (albeit tied back in a 'man bun' to be more in line with 2010s fashion). The scene was cut down, and he had cut his hair short by the time they brought him and Amy Jo Johnson back to film a new one.
• Recursive Import: Was dubbed and released in Japan. The premiere was even attended by Yuta Mochizuki, who played Geki in Zyuranger, and Takumi Kizu, who played Lucky in Uchu Sentai Kyuranger, the Super Sentai of 2017.
• Same Content, Different Rating: Due to Russia's strict guidelines against homosexuality in movies, the film was rated a whopping 18+ there due to Trini being revealed to be a part of the LGBTQ community. Mind you, this is all for a couple of vague lines about it. Even Malaysia, which had a fiasco involving Beauty and the Beast (2017) for including a gay character take place^note Again, for something that was barely even part of the movie itself, cleared Power Rangers for release without a fuss.
• Saved from Development Hell: Saban had been trying to make a new movie version for years until this finally got off the ground.
• Screwed by the Network: Despite March usually being a Dump Month, the film had the misfortune of being played against Logan, Kong: Skull Island and Beauty and the Beast, amongst others, all of which opened the same month. Likely an unintentional example, since many expected this film to at least outdo Kong, which ended up being a Sleeper Hit that beat this film.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting:
  • Naomi Scott bears a striking resemblance to Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly's actress in the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers). They also have uncannily similar voices (when Naomi is speaking in an American accent instead of her normal British one).
  • Some people have brought up how David Denman, who plays Jason's dad, looks (and during his agitated moments, sounds) a lot like Jason's original actor, Austin St. John.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy:
  • Two toy versions of the Megazord are reasonably show accurate, in different ways. The Interactive Megazord has the cockpits in the right spots and mostly have more accurate paint, except for the wings and knees. It also has a movie-accurate wrist blade and looks more like a single humanoid robot than a Combining Mecha. The Colossal Megazord is more in scale with its pilots and can combine but had to take liberties to be a feasible toy. The legs are simply the separate Blue and Black Zords rather than splitting and recombining, and uses the Red Zord's cannon instead of the blade. It also uses the Ptera Zord's body and T. Rex tail as swords (instead of the wings) and simply hides the head in the T. Rex's chest when broken up. As a trade off, the individual Zords are very accurate save some missing paint and the inclusion of a catapult for the Mastodon Zord. The mini-figures included with both also have impressive sculpting for being 2 inches tall. Both lack some of the blue details in the movie model, though.
  • All versions of the Ranger action figures have very accurate sculpts and painted details. However, they lack the wave pattern seen on the on-screen suits and have fewer silver highlights.
• Star-Making Role: For Ludi Lin, who got cast in Aquaman, and Naomi Scott, who landed the role of Princess Jasmine in the live-action remake of Disney's Aladdin, not long after this movie's release. It also helped put Dacre Montgomery on the map — his involvement with the second season of Stranger Things was announced around the same time.
• Stillborn Franchise: The movie was intended to be the start of a Power Rangers cinematic universe with further installments focusing on interpretations of other Power Rangers teams, but was not commercially successful, with Hasbro opting for the next Power Rangers movie to be a Continuity Reboot shortly after they acquired the franchise killing whatever chance there was of the Lionsgate film getting a sequel.
• Throw It In!:
  • R.J. Cyler ad-libbed Billy's "That's a strong ass hologram" and Mamazord/Megazord lines and Billy's stimming (his habit of clapping his hands three times quickly) is something Cyler does himself but happened to fit the character.
  • Jason's snapping of a baseball trophy was done on the spot by Dacre Montgomery.
  • Elizabeth Banks improvised eating the gold necklace in the jewellery store.
  • Trini in the training montage kicks a putty hologram in the groin. Becky G accidentally got the stuntman there for real, and the holograms hands can be seen instinctively going there. Dean Israelite found it funny and left it in.
• Vindicated by Video: After failing in the theatrical run, the movie was able to top the home video sale charts.
• What Could Have Been: Enough for its own page.

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