Latest news with #BlackRanger
The Hill
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hill
‘Power Rangers' actor splits with writer, says casting a ‘milestone'
Walter Emanual Jones, the actor best known for his role as the Black Power Ranger in the 1990s 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,' has rejected the notion that casting a Black actor in the role was a mistake. 'While some choose to seek out the negative, I've always believed in focusing on the positive,' Jones wrote on Instagram this week. 'I understand the impulse to address what might be seen as cultural insensitivity, but calling it a 'mistake' would dismiss the impact it had on countless people around the world who found inspiration and representation in TV's first Black superhero — morphin' into none other than the Black Power Ranger!' Jones's comments follow remarks from Tony Oliver, a writer from the show, who said he regretted having a Black actor play the role of a Black Ranger and an Asian actor — Thuy Trang — play the Yellow Ranger. In an interview for investigation discovery's for 'Dark Side of the Power Rangers,' Oliver said he had never noticed the stereotype until his assistant pointed it out to him. 'It was such a mistake,' Oliver said. Jones himself had joked about the casting of a Black actor as the Black Power Ranger, according to footage from the documentary. 'My name's Walter Jones, I play Zack. I'm Black, and I play the black Ranger — go figure,' Jones said in the clip. The show was a pop culture phenomenon for many growing up in the 90s, so much so that Jones reunited with castmates for a 30th anniversary reunion special. 'It wasn't a mistake; it was a milestone. It was an honor,' Jones said in his Instagram post.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Black Ranger Walter Emanuel Jones reacts to writer calling Black and Yellow Power Rangers casting 'a mistake'
For Walter Emanuel Jones, suiting up as Black Ranger in the mega hit Power Rangers franchise was nothing short of an honor. The actor responded to headline-making comments from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers writer Tony Oliver, who recently expressed regret over the perceived stereotypical casting of Black and Asian actors to play Black Ranger and Yellow Ranger — namely, Jones as Zack Taylor/Black Ranger and the late Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan/Yellow Ranger. Sharing screenshots of all the headlines on Oliver's comments on Instagram, Jones challenged the notion that it was culturally insensitive and clarified that he considers it a milestone of its era."While some choose to seek out the negative, I've always believed in focusing on the positive," Jones wrote. "I understand the impulse to address what might be seen as cultural insensitivity, but calling it a 'mistake' would dismiss the impact it had on countless people around the world who found inspiration and representation in TV's first Black superhero — morphin' into none other than the Black Power Ranger! It wasn't a mistake; it was a milestone. It was an honor." Jones made his Black Ranger debut on Fox Kids' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1993 and appeared across all two seasons. He recently reprised the role alongside his original costars, including Amy Jo Johnson and David Yost, in Netflix's 30th anniversary reunion special feature Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always. Oliver and more creatives looked back on the crafting of the show and the casting in the Power Rangers episode of Investigation Discovery's new docuseries, Hollywood Demons. "None of us are thinking stereotypes," Oliver, the program's former head writer, said in the episode of Jones and Trang's casting, adding that it was his assistant who pointed out the potentially problematic nature of it during a meeting one day. "It was such a mistake." Jones himself also recently discussed the topic during an appearance on Jim Cummings' Toon'd In! podcast last month. "Me being in a black suit never bothered me," Jones said, sharing that he had been floated for the blue and red suits as well but the characters did not quite fit him. "Black was what I wanted to wear." He also echoed a tidbit shared by Oliver in the docuseries, that Latina actress Audri Dubois had been cast as Yellow Ranger in the pilot but departed the show due to a pay dispute. Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
The Independent
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Power Rangers writer says casting Black and Asian actors as Black and Yellow Rangers was ‘mistake'
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers writer Tony Oliver has said it was 'such a mistake' to cast a Black actor to play the Black Ranger and an Asian actor to play the Yellow Ranger on the first two seasons of the 1990s superhero show. The series, which debuted in 1993, starred Walter Emanuel Jones as Zack Taylor/Black Ranger and Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan/Yellow Ranger. He continued: "It was my assistant who pointed it out in a meeting one day, that we had made the Black character the Black Ranger and the Asian character the Yellow Ranger. It was such a mistake.' Oliver went on to point out that 'Thuy was not our original Yellow Ranger.' In the original pilot for the series, the Yellow Ranger was played by Audri Dubois, who quit the show following a pay dispute. Trang was added to the cast and edited into the pilot before it aired. Behind-the-scenes footage included in 'Dark Side of the Power Rangers' shows that the cast, if not the writers, were aware of the stereotypes at play. In one scene, Jones says to the camera: 'My name's Walter Jones, I play Zack. I'm Black, and I play the Black Ranger. Go figure.' When the series was rebooted as a movie in 2017, the characters were recast. A Black actor, RJ Cyler, played the Blue Ranger while an Asian actor, Ludi Lin, played the Black Ranger. Latin pop star Becky G played the Yellow Ranger. However, Writing for The Independent at the time, Kaan K said: 'As a queer person who grew up in a 'straight' culture, you can imagine my excitement when I read online that the newest Yellow Power Ranger was going to be gay... 'I went to the cinema with high hopes – the director called the Yellow Ranger's 'coming-out' scene 'pivotal', after all. Finally there would be a cute girl who the Yellow Ranger falls for, I thought, just like there have been so many heterosexual romances in Power Rangers in the past. 'So you can imagine my disappointment when her 'queerness' was left so ambiguous that you could have easily left the cinema thinking she was straight.'
