Mighty Morphin Power Rangers actor Walter Emanuel Jones has shared why he left the popular 1990s franchise after just two seasons.
The actor, who played Zack Taylor/Black Power Ranger was a guest on the latest episode of Taboo’s Comics & Kicks podcast. During his appearance, he reflected on his exit from the show after it became a billion-dollar success.
"I left the show at its height because we weren't treated properly on the show," Jones told host Taboo of Black Eyed Peas around the 41-minute mark of the video below. "It was they made a billion dollars in the very first year of the show and then they lowered the budget, it was kind of weird."
Jones added that it was him and two others that "stood up" about the perceived unreasonable situation, claiming that their contracts with 20th Century Fox at the time were "garbage."
The contracts in question also included three movies, which Jones said he wasn't happy about, claiming that the show was "going to continue to screw us for three movies."
"'Let's get a lawyer. Let's get somebody to represent us all,'" he said he suggested to the other cast members taking a stand. "But at the end of the day only three of us did it. And so we took the stand."
While Jones called the decision "difficult," he only admitted to having regret about not starring in 1995 film Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.
"But the stand that it took to go, 'Hey, come on, man. Y'all got to give us some respect. Give us some respect. Treat us well. Treat us the way you treat us as professionals,'" Jones said.
"Of course, we started as people that nobody knew. But now at this point,
we've earned our way to we're professional actors. We do this on a regular basis. I'd done 85 episodes. It was time."
Jones left the franchise midway through the second Mighty Morphin season, but returned as a voice actor in 2002 series Power Rangers Lost Galaxy before returning as the Black Power Ranger in 2023 movie Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always.
Last year, Jones explained in an Instagram post that it was an "honor" to be cast as the Black Power Ranger and said he didn't feel stereotyped.
The post came around the time that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers head writer called it a "mistake" to cast Taylor as the Black Power Ranger and Vietnamese actror, Thuy Trang, as the Yellow Power Ranger, considering its racial context.
