this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025

532 points (97.7% liked)

Not The Onion

15847 readers

11 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

Links to news stories from...
...credible sources, with...
...their original headlines, that...
...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

532

'Power Rangers' writer says casting Black and Asian actors as Black and Yellow Rangers was 'a mistake' (ew.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

68 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 168 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

Yeah. I can believe that Trini was an accident. They wanted two girl rangers. Blue, Red, and Black are "boy colors" whereas Yellow is neutral.

And Zack's character was pretty normal for the era (black guy who incorporates "hip hop" into everything he does) but there is zero chance it was not intentional to cast the Black guy as Zack the Black ranger.

And yeah. Even as kids on the playground we all knew that was racist as shit. I'll always remember my homeroom teacher trying not to laugh her ass off while she was telling us we can't talk about how they should have cast a Native American as the Red Ranger.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What's funny is right before they changed costumes with ZEO, they gave Tommy a Native American ancestor and then he became the red ZEO ranger.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 weeks ago

Tommy is white... White ranger. Tommy discovers he is like 1/32 Native American... suddenly becomes Red ranger.

Honestly, that is pretty par for the course. Go get that ethnic minority scholarship you slightly-less-than-totally-white guy.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The real question is what they should have done with the blue ranger. All I can think of is David Carradine.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago

I found Rich Evans' Lemmy account

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Let's be honest here: if the Carradines knew power rangers was a thing they would have insisted on putting on some yellow face and taking Thuy's job.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Pink ranger must have been an accident, too.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 weeks ago

No? Pink is a "girl" color. And even in the original sentai source material, Pink was a girl (hence the skirt). Yellow was a dude which is why you can really tell what scenes were filmed with the US stunt team/actors and what were from the original (hint: Is the bulge in the crotch or the chest?).

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The costumes came before the US casting, and it already had a skirt.

So either they turned extremely progressive for a children show on the 90s or they cast a Scottish

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

Not just the costumes, much of the footage used was just re-editted footage straight from Japan's Super Sentai series (specifically their 16th iteration). The only footage that was American made, for the most part, was stuff in the command center and where you can see the actors' faces. The monster fights, the zords, the stuff with Rita on the moon, etc. was all Super Sentai footage.

And the reason that the yellow ranger didn't have a skirt like the pink ranger did despite being played by a woman is becuase they weren't played by a woman in Japan. The yellow ranger was a guy in the original Super Sentai series and was only made a girl in the US.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 96 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Let’s not forget that the native guy was the red ranger

[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

And the white boy and girl were blue and pink respectively.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"White power"... "ranger"

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

God it was so fucking obnoxious to play Power Rangers in kindergarten. “You’re a giiiiirrrrlll, so you have to be the pink ranger.”

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At least they had diversity...?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

True, and honestly I didn’t notice as a kid

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Jason was Native? Pretty sure Tommy was Native in the canon (confirmed when they are seeking the Zeo Crystals), but I don't recall Jason ever being identified as Native. Although Tommy did then become the Red Zeo Ranger, so that's not great. Is that what you were referring to?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Austin St John is native

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I think it was probably an even bigger mistake to have the Black Ranger fight with break dancing Kung-Fu moves, but what do I know.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

But wasn't all that fighting taken from the original Japanese show?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago

Most of the in-costume stuff is, and the Black Ranger doesn't break dance in that. But there's usually an out of costume fight with Putties before that.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

This is the case. They are mimicking the original Japanese choreography and movement style.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Hip Hop Keto

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 weeks ago

the optics might not have been the best but walter and thuy were amazing as power rangers

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Should have cast a russian as the red ranger. I mean if you're ALREADY being racist....

You could cast a person with depression as the blue ranger. Oh....I see you have that covered. And a female sex symbol as the pink ranger. Oh, thats covered too.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

If you're going to go full racist, red wouldn't be Russian. They'd be native American.

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hmm...

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

tldr Saban didnt want unionized actors and went out of their way to cast functionally nobodies for the lowest price. Its why after this dispute, it was much less common for cast members to be retained for the next season. Outside of Jason David Frank and Johnny Yong Bosch, it was much more rare for any ex cast member to return in a series several series later.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nothing burger

[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Honestly, I think it’s more commendable that the rangers were so diverse at the time than it’s outrageous that the Black and Asian characters wore those colors. They could have easily casted all white kids back then. The characters were treated with respect by the producers and were well liked by fans. This is only an issue to people 30 years later.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

In Captain Planet, it always bothered me that the South American dude got a ridiculous power like "heart" while everyone else got something useful.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Don't diss Ma-Ti he fought leopards barehanded before he had any powers and averted thermonuclear war without any help from the others. While we're on the subject I think Earth and Fire should swap owners.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The powers should have been:

European: The power to take stuff from others without them noticing.

North America: The power to buy stuff and vacuously talk themselves into bad ideas, and project their voice over long distances.

Asia: small stature to squeeze into tight spaces, and has the power to reproduce and instantly make many copies of themselves.

Africa: Summon large animals and inflict malaria on enemies.

S America: Bring all the others together with a universal love of drugs, and drives around on a bulldozer.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I remember that we found it funny as kids. I have no idea how this is somehow problematic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It’s not, so what you laughed? You were exposed to a positive multiracial cast

Humour is a good way to create that exposure for people uncomfortable with it and get past producers that wouldn’t allow it otherwise

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly couldn't care less about it, at least they were casted in the 90's.

What's he got to say about Billie's actor being bullied off the show for being gay?

https://ew.com/article/2010/08/26/original-power-ranger-harassed-gay/

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I have a vague memory that the original show from Japan had a man in the yellow costume and when it was adapted for American audiences they wanted yellow to be a woman. This lead to a effectively trans character because of an occasionally noticeable bulge.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Power Rangers is a patchwork work edited with footage from a few different shows. Robots from one, costume fights from others. It was not really a reboot, they just took the footage of this yellow-costumed guy fighting and use it directly.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago

“asshole move made with full awareness” is probably a better term than “mistake”

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

Leave it in the 90's, weirdos.

It happened and ended, lessons were learned no harm was done.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

On the other side, the Yellow Ranger had a visible bulge so let's call that progressive.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

That was due in large part to the fully suited scenes being cut from the orginal show. The characters we know in the English version are really a separate cast.

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

The 90's were fucking awesome.