If the former show Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers upheld racist stereotypes, it was unbeknownst to head writer and voice actor Tony Oliver.
In Investigation Discovery documentary Hollywood Demons, Oliver recalled a "mistake" being made when a Black actor, Walter Jones, was cast as the Black Power Ranger/Zack Taylor, while Vietnamese actress, Thuy Trang, was cast as the Yellow Power Ranger/Trini Kwan.
"None of us are thinking stereotypes," Oliver said, per Entertainment Weekly.
But it was during a meeting that Oliver's assistant "pointed out" that, although it may not have been intentional, the casting could be perceived as racist.
According to Oliver, it was Taylor who "seemed to have the swagger of the group," while Kwan was "the peaceful one, who tends to be the conscience of the group." But the explanation still has offensive connotations.
The writer also mentioned that Trang was not originally cast as the Yellow Ranger, with the first choice being actress and martial artist Audri Dubois. She would later leave the production because of a pay dispute.
But recorded footage taken on set by a stunt coordinator seems to show that the characters were aware of the stereotypes. In a scene from the ID docuseries, Jones says, "My name’s Walter Jones, I play Zack. I’m Black, and I play the Black Ranger — go figure."
In 2013, the show's co-creator, Shuki Levy spoke to Complex and claimed that Jones and Trang's casting "wasn’t intentional at all," blaming the casting on being "new to this country."
"We didn’t grow up in the same environment that exists in America with regard to skin color," Levy said. "We grew up in Israel, where being a Black person is like being any kind of color. It’s not something we talked about all the time. It wasn’t a big issue."
Power Rangers has a chance to undo its controversial history with the show's upcoming Disney+ reboot.
