Why a Recurring Cast for Power Rangers Now Makes Sense

For many years, Power Rangers fans have wished for the brand to return to its original owner, Saban. But for a stretch of time just as long, it seemed like this would never happen. It was just one more idle fantasy, one more way to make Power Rangers "good again" that only a world more perfect than ours was capable of.

The ability to follow the lives of one single social circle as it, and its components, grew and changed over a number of years is an appeal unique to the three seasons of the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. For many Power Rangers fans watching from day one, this high school soap opera element was every bit as interesting as the monsters, robots and martial arts action. It is one of the few pieces of the original series' winning formula that later entries have not attempted to replicate, favoring the Super Sentai model of making each season a distinct and self-contained storyline.



Now that Power Rangers is again in the control of Saban, the next wish on the list for many Power Rangers fans is that the main cast of the forthcoming Power Rangers Samurai return for the two seasons following it, either out of childhood nostalgia, the belief that this will allow Power Rangers to succeed as it did in its first three years, or both. This desire was echoed even by David Yost in his recent interview with No Pink Spandex: "I can't speak for fans... But I think ...the original cast, we had such a great chemistry working together ... and I think the fans really enjoyed us. I just hope that [Haim Saban] keeps the cast around for maybe three seasons and then maybe decides to replace 'em."

While this desire to make Power Rangers the way it used to be is nothing new, now is a particularly interesting time to be considering this possibility.

Though the heroes of its source footage were expressly fencers, casting calls for Power Rangers Samurai noted martial arts skills as "a big plus" and a new publicity photo depicts the Samurai cast in matching sleeveless gi suggest that Power Rangers Samurai will feature the practice of martial arts. In this way, the first season of the new Saban era will emphasize what the Power Rangers are to fans new and old before anything else: Martial artists.

Tensou Sentai Goseiger, the footage source for the Power Rangers season following Samurai, is the Super Sentai season with the strongest resemblance to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers to date. It is the first Sentai team in ten years to feature silver mouth guards with lips, features the same color lineup for the core team. It parallels Mighty Morphin' in ways its own source material did not, with characters analogous to Zordon and Alpha 5. An adaption of Goseiger written to continue with the cast of Samurai receiving new powers could feature the rangers finding the circumstances of their new powers familiar in a way that they cannot quite place, to later discover that they echo the events of a universe parallel to them, that of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

Goseiger's followup, currently rumored to be titled Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, would be basis for the last segment of this imagined three-year run. It is rumored that Gokaiger will feature its titular team visiting the world of every previous Sentai, to continue promoting the arcade game Super Sentai Battle Dice-O and capitalize on the popularity of like-styled Kamen Rider season Kamen Rider Decade. If these rumors pan out, the cast of Power Rangers Samurai would end their run with a season of visiting the worlds of every previous Power Rangers team, meeting them, and fighting alongside them. Although Super Sentai always warmly welcomes and bombastically promotes the new heroes that arrive each year, never does it seem more full of faith in the future or prouder of its ability to be born again than at the end of a time of reminiscence. I struggle to imagine a better time than that for a recurring Power Rangers cast to bow out and raise the curtain for tomorrow's heroes than at the end of a full season of reminiscence.

There is no evidence that Saban plans to retain the cast of Power Rangers Samurai to appear in the seasons following it. But in the minds of many fans, the idea is on the table, and I can see why: It's never made more sense.