Another Rick Ungar creation. This time the story of Zorro is updated to 2015, and the latest descendant of the de la Vega line is a 17-year-old teenager named Diego who takes up the mantle of Zorro with help from his mute friend Bernardo. To replace the famous Tornado, we now have a Cool Bike called Tornado Z that helps transport Diego to fight against Pueblo Grande's corrupt mayor, Horace Hernando Martinez.
Compare Phantom 2040 and Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Along with Zorro, the city is also defended by the Scarlet Whip, a superheroine with a Cool Car and twin laser whips.
- Adaptational Wimp: García is a useless imbecile instead of the bumbling but decent fighter he was in Zorro (1957). All in all, this version of him seems more inspired by his portrayal in The New Adventures of Zorro (1997). He does, however, get a Day in the Limelight episode that shows him to be a fairly decent detective ... when Martinez allows him to be.
- Ascended Fanboy: In a flashback to one of Diego's birthday parties, both Diego and Maria are thrilled when Diego's grandfather shows up in his Zorro costume. Diego grows up to become the next Zorro, of course, and Maria's Scarlet Whip persona is basically Zorro's Distaff Counterpart. Which may explain why Maria/Scarlet Whip was initially hostile towards Diego when she first met the new Zorro; she saw him as a poser who could not live up to the legend of The Fox.
- Badass Biker: The new Zorro uses a Cool Bike in place of the usual Cool Horse.
- Beneath the Earth: The city has an entire civilization of homeless people living in the caverns and subway tunnels beneath it.
- Broke Episode: The Tornado Z is totaled, and Diego is unable to get it immediately fixed because his father has temporarily cut him off from his trust fund. Cue Diego taking on a series of humiliating jobs, such as car wash employee and Burger Fool, to try and raise money for repairs.
- Captain Ersatz:
- Don Payaso is basically The Joker, even down to wearing a purple tuxedo.
- Scarlet Whip is one for the comic book character Lady Rawhide.
- Cloak of Defense: Zorro's cloak is resistant to gunfire.
- Cool Bike: The Tornado Z, a high-tech motorcycle used by the new Zorro, and named after the original Zorro's Cool Horse.
- Cute Mute: The geeky, introverted Bernardo. Exactly why he cannot speak is never made clear.
- Daddy's Little Villain: The Scarlet Whip is fine with dismantling her father's criminal operations, but is wary of actually exposing her father as a criminal.
- The Dragon: Itchy the Hook, who is notably the only one of the Dons who remains loyal to the mayor after Gloria Sheffield's hostile takeover of the criminal underworld of Pueblo Grande.
- Family-Friendly Firearms: The future looks a lot like the present outside of the laser weapons. The guns strongly resemble the Star Trek: The Next Generation early "dustbuster" incarnation of phasers.
- Four Is Death: The show's most formidable villains are the appropriately-named Fearsome Four. When they revolt against Mayor Martinez he is terrified for his life even though he is the head of both all law enforcement and all organized crime in the city. Luckily for him and Zorro they only show up twice.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Bernardo builds and maintains all of Zorro's gear, and also acts as his Mission Control.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Because the main cast are all depicted as being of Hispanic descent and Pueblo Grande is most likely in southern California.
- Humongous Mecha: The mayor gets Mecha-Mooks called "Digi-Dons" in "The Wounded Fox." They eventually rebel against him, and try to demolish his headquarters using a giant robot made from the contents of a junkyard.
- Laser Blade: Everyone has laser swords, and a lot of people have laser whips.
- Left Hanging: The show ends with Mayor Martinez losing his reelection campaign... to an even bigger crook. The intro to a second season was released, but the season itself never followed. Strangely, the Season 2 intro makes it look like Mayor Martinez still would have been the main villain.
- Legacy Character: There have been many Zorro's over the years. Diego is just the most recent.
- Living with the Villain: The heroic Scarlet Whip is secretly the corrupt mayor's daughter, Maria.
- Magical Realism: Most of the show is fairly sci-fi due to its 20 Minutes into the Future setting, however, Diego sometimes receives dreams where his grandfather acts as a Spirit Adviser and one episode had him pep-talked by a young Native American girl that he found out was his deceased grandmother. The episode "A Z In Time" had Diego travel back in time and team up with the original Zorro after taking a bad fall... somehow, and the ending confirms that it was not All Just a Dream and was in fact a Stable Time Loop.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Is the golden feather given to the de la Vega family really lucky? Zorro does have some bad luck once the feather is taken from him. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that the real feather was never stolen in the first place, so...
- Morph Weapon: Zorro's single weapon can rearrange into several modes: Laser Blade, Darth Maul-esque laser staff, laser whip, and a standard laser blaster.
- Mutual Masquerade: Diego and Maria have no idea of each others' secret identities, until the last episode.
- My Horse Is a Motorbike: Tornado Z is a Cool Bike, replacing the original Zorro's Cool Horse Tornado.
- Mythology Gag: Originally, Maria's costumed identity was going to be the Black Whip, probably based on the film Zorro's Black Whip, actually about a masked heroine. Presumably this was changed to make her more distinct from the black-clad Zorro. It's also a reference to Lady Rawhide, a popular "Bad Girl" spin-off of the 1990s Zorro comics who wore red and used a whip.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Scarlet Whip's method of distinguishing herself from her civilian identity... she puts on red shades, a pink wig, and wears a red trenchcoat. That's it.
- Recycled IN SPACE: Zorro IN THE FUTURE!
- The Speechless: Bernardo is a mute.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Being athletic teens with cool technology but no actual crime fighting experience means that Diego and Maria's first outings as costumed heroes is not exactly smooth; Diego is trapped by the mayor and needs Scarlet Whip's help to escape and their constant arguing is a sharp contrast to their teamwork in later episodes. Reality swings in the other way, though, as they do get better and become very competent superheroes with experience.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Hilariously subverted in the pilot, where Zorro and Scarlet Whip have a spitting contest over who is a better hero, and the bad guys take advantage of their distraction to shoot Scarlet Whip off of a roof
. - 20 Minutes into the Future: The series was originally aired in 2006 while its setting is 2015, nine years apart. Things are mostly the same with the exception of the laser weapons, robots and holographic projectors.
- Whip Sword: The Scarlet Whip wields twin laser whips; Laser Blades with the reach and flexibility of a whip.
- Zorro Mark: Naturally. Into the seat of an enemy's pants, usually.
