Power Rangers writer says casting Asian and Black actors as Yellow and Black rangers was a 'mistake'

The head writer for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has admitted that it was a “mistake” casting a Black actor to play the Black Ranger and an Asian actor to play the Yellow Ranger.

In August 1993, the iconic superhero multimedia franchise kicked off with the first season that told the story of five “teenagers with attitude” chosen to defend the Earth against Rita Repulsa and her squad of evil monsters.

Walter Emanuel Jones played Zack Taylor, the first ever Black Ranger, and the late Thuy Trang portrayed Trini Kwan, our very first Yellow Ranger.

The casting decision has raised eyebrows, but Tony Oliver, who served as the show’s head writer, insists that “none of us [were] thinking stereotypes” when casting decisions were made.

Zack and Trini in Mighty Morphin Power RangersSaban Brands

Oliver said in the new Investigation Discovery series about the long-running superhero franchise that it wasn’t until his assistant “pointed it out in a meeting one day” that he realised the casting of Zack and Trini were upholding stereotypes.

“It was such a mistake,” he said.

Power Rangers is based on the Japanese tokusatsu series Super Sentai. Footage is lifted directly from the source material for Power Rangers, most notably the scenes of the Rangers fighting monsters. Casting directors were tasked with creating American characters that would match the characteristics in the Japanese source material, with some exceptions, as the Yellow Ranger in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the source of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, is a man.

During the casting process for Power Rangers, Oliver said the Black Ranger “seemed to have the swagger of the group”, while the Yellow Ranger was, “the peaceful one, who tends to be the conscience of the group.” They were looking for actors who had these qualities, with Oliver noting that Trang was not the original choice for the Yellow Ranger (it was Audri Dubois who left the role after shooting the pilot).

Camcorder footage in the documentary taken by one of the show’s stunt performers showed Jones joking about the casting. “My name’s Walter Jones, I play Zack. I’m Black, and I play the Black Ranger - go figure," he said.

Trang, Jones, and the original Red Ranger played by Austin St. John, left the show in its second season due to contractual and pay disputes. Trini was replaced with a character named Aisha played by Karan Ashley, who is African American, and Jones’ Zack was replaced with a new character named Adam, portrayed by Johnny Yong Bosch, who was of mixed Korean, Irish and German American descent.

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