The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a phenomenon in the 1990s, and the popularity of the series made it a hugely successful cultural and commercial franchise. The show debuted on FOX Kids in 1993 and became a massive hit with young viewers, especially. But one of the writers behind the show’s success recently admitted that he had regrets about the awkward casting: namely, the choice to have a Black man to play the team’s Black Ranger, and an Asian woman to play the Yellow Ranger.
During an appearance on HBO’s docuseries Hollywood Demons, former head writer Tony Oliver said it was a bad decision — but it wasn’t intentional.
“None of us are thinking stereotypes,” he said in the “Dark Side of the Power Rangers” episode of the series. He also said he never noticed the problematic casting choices until his assistant “pointed it out in a meeting one day.”
“Nobody really talked about me playing the Black Ranger at first,” Black Ranger actor Walter Emanuel Jones said in a 2014 interview. “But after Trang was hired, everyone was like ‘Wait a minute! The Yellow Ranger is Asian and you’re the Black Ranger and you’re a Black guy.’ They were going to replace Audri Dubois with another girl either way, but she just happened to be Asian.”
The popularity of the show has led to video games, popular movies, and even a “Hip-Hop Rangers” team that appeared on the show briefly during its run.
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