Following on from the recent announcement of Naomi Scott being cast as Pink Ranger Kimberley Hart we now have some more updates:
Dacre Montgomery as Jason Lee Scott/Red Ranger
In the original series Jason is a martial artist from Angel Grove, California. In the beginning of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, he and his closest friends Zack Taylor, Billy Cranston, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart are selected by Zordon and Alpha 5 as the five “teenagers with attitude” to become the original Power Rangers and defend Earth from the forces of the evil Rita Repulsa.
When Zordon first confronts the teens to give them their powers, Jason is the only one who initially believes him. Jason becomes the Red Power Ranger, is given the Power Coin of the Tyrannosaurus “Dinozord” (a type of Transformer-esque robot), obtains the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord, and is made the team leader. He leads the Rangers into many successful battles against Rita’s monsters, establishing a rivalry with Rita’s number one henchman Goldar
When Tommy Oliver is introduced, he becomes competitive rivals with Jason, matching him in a martial arts competition. Rita then manipulates Tommy, turning him into the evil Green Ranger, and sends him into battle. He later captures Jason, steals his Power Morpher and imprisons him in Rita’s Dark Dimension where he would have to fight Goldar to retrieve his Morpher. The Green Ranger eventually arrives at the scene with orders to destroy Jason, however Billy, Trini, and Alpha manage to repair the damage Tommy did to the Command Center, in time to find Jason and retrieve him seconds before he is killed by Tommy. Later, Jason squares off with Tommy on Earth and ultimately defeats him in combat when he hurls his energized Power Sword at the Green Ranger, disarming him, and then uses his Blade Blaster to destroy the Sword of Darkness that Rita had given to Tommy, due to the sword’s ability to maintain her evil spell on him. Jason then convinces Tommy to join the team and use his powers against Rita.
Later, Rita crafts a Green Candle out of special wax that had been enchanted with Tommy’s touch when he was evil. Once lit, the candle continues to burn until it is gone, and when it is, so too would Tommy’s powers. Because Tommy’s proximity to the candle accelerates the candle’s melting process, Tommy is captured and placed in its proximity by Goldar. However, he eventually escapes and Jason is left to retrieve the candle. Jason does well in his fight with Goldar, but is recalled into the battle with Rita’s Cyclops monster in order to save Tommy’s life.
Following the failure of destroying the Green Candle, Tommy entrusts Jason with his Power Coin to prevent them falling into Rita’s hands again, allowing him access to the Green Ranger’s powers. This includes the Dragon Shield and the Dragon Dagger, which also allows him to call the Dragonzord to aid the Rangers, even while Jason controls the Megazord.
One of Jason’s most cunning moments is the gambit he plays against Goldar, who kidnaps the parents of Angel Grove High’s students, then ransoms them for the Ranger’s five Power Coins. Jason would later reveal that though he gave up his Tyrannosaurus Power Coin to Goldar, he kept the Dragon Power Coin. With it, Tommy eventually regains his Green Ranger powers, retrieves the other Ranger’s Power Coins and helps the team save their captive parents.
When Lord Zedd arrives and overruns Rita, he sends his new brand of Putty Patrollers to Earth. The Putties possess superior strength to Rita’s Putties, but it is Jason who discovers their weak spot. In order to compete with their new enemy’s more powerful monsters, the Dinozords are upgraded into the mythical Thunderzords; Jason’s being the Red Dragon Thunderzord, which can transform into a humanoid form. As with the Tyrannosaurus, the Red Dragon is capable of defeating a monster on its own, separate from the Megazord formation.
Eventually, Tommy loses his Green Ranger powers for good, and Jason suffers from immense guilt because of it. Choosing to capitalize on Jason’s vulnerability, Zedd creates candles for Zack, Billy, Trini and Kimberly that would remove their links to the Morphing Grid, just as Rita did to Tommy. Jason, with the help of Zordon’s confidence in him, manages to save his friends and prevent them from losing their powers. Following the victory, Jason wins a martial arts trophy and dedicates it to Tommy, who soon after returns as the White Ranger and is named the new leader of the team by Zordon. Tommy still heavily relied on Jason, as shown where he asks for Jason’s help because he is struggling to defeat Nimrod the Scarlett Sentinel, Jason then comes to Tommy’s aid and together with the other Rangers they defeat the Nimrod.
Some time later, Jason, Trini and Zack are chosen to act as ambassadors at a peace conference in Switzerland, and are forced to leave the team. Zordon chooses Rocky DeSantos to replace Jason as the Red Ranger.
Jason returns in Power Rangers Zeo, temporarily taking over the powers of the Gold Zeo Ranger from Trey of Triforia when Trey is injured in a fight with Varox bounty hunters. Upon his return to the team, he is also made second-in-command. His return is greatly welcomed by his old friends Tommy and Billy and he quickly makes new friends out of the newer Rangers Adam Park, Katherine Hillard and Tanya Sloan. However, Rocky soon becomes disturbed by his teammates’ love for Jason, as he feels he is being replaced by the Ranger he had replaced. After risking his life to prove himself to be worthy despite Jason’s popularity, Rocky eventually accepts Jason as a friend and adopts the same jovial relationship with Jason that Rocky has with everyone else. When Tommy is kidnapped by Prince Gasket, Jason would step up as leader of the team once again until they were able to save Tommy and bring him back. Jason is also chosen by Tanya to become the guardian of Auric the Conqueror for a time. During Zeo, Tommy shows a deep dependence on Jason’s advice when it comes to leadership decisions.
Jason returns the Gold Ranger powers to Trey in the final episode of Zeo when it is discovered that he cannot handle the powers much longer, as they are draining away – along with his own life force – due to the Gold Ranger powers not being intended for human physiology. However, there are no apparent long-term effects, and Jason appears perfectly healthy after the powers are transferred back to Trey.
Jason’s final live-action appearance is in Power Rangers Wild Force, in the special episode “Forever Red,” which celebrated the tenth anniversary of Power Rangers. In this special, he utilizes his original Red Ranger powers and joins nine other Red Rangers (which includes Tommy, but not Rocky) to defeat the remnants of the Machine Empire, a force of villains that Jason had previously battled as the Gold Ranger. After the events of “Forever Red,” Jason returns to living a normal life, though he presumably still retains his Red Ranger powers.
Lundi Lin as Zachary “Zack” Taylor/Black Ranger
As mentioned above Zack was selected to be a Power Ranger by Zordon and gained the Mastodon Dinozord. Zack was quick-witted and clever, and often relied on a combination of skill, strength, and agility to win his battles. He was energetic, charismatic, and fun-loving young man who enjoyed athletics (such as basketball, American football, and scuba diving), dancing (especially to a fresh beat bumping out his friend’s boombox), parties, and girls. Whenever he didn’t have an arm around Trini or Kimberly, Zack could be found pursuing his attractive, but hard-to-get classmate, Angela. Zack always loved a good joke. Though he loved all the people close to him, Zack’s best friend was clearly Jason. Zack is extremely confident and positive. Only four occasions saw Zack ready to give it up: when the Green Ranger took out Zordon, Alpha 5 and the Command Center while removing the Rangers from the Megazord; when his team was placed under a spell to take away their confidence; and when their Dinozords were commandeered by Lord Zedd’s first monster, Pirantishead. But the first occasion happened very early in the series when his friends pretended to have forgotten his birthday. Zack went off into a secluded area, and into a trap by Rita Repulsa. For some time, he had to fight the powerful Knasty Knight alone. Oddly enough, despite his plentiful confidence, Zack is an extreme ophidiophobe, arachnophobe, and entomophobe meaning he is terrified of snakes, spiders, and insects although, on one occasion when performing magic for a group of children seeking shelter from a monster attack, he handled two fake snakes and used them to scare off Bulk and Skull. Because of this, it can be assumed that Zack’s fear of snakes deteriorated over time, especially after an encounter on Rita’s Island of illusion where his strength of will was tested against his fear of snakes.
Zack enjoyed martial arts just as much as he did dancing and, as a result, created his own fighting style, called Hip Hop kido. The customized art consisted of dance-like maneuvers flourished with fast and powerful strikes, much like Capoeira or as seen by actor Daniel O’ Neill in Bangkok Adrenaline. This effective combination of power and prowess made Zack an incredibly formidable combatant. However, he would sometimes tone down his style and mimic the attacks of Billy to simultaneously strike opponents. He was also very resourceful. On several occasions, it was his cunning that led his team to victory. Such occasions included his discovery of the means to overcome the Knasty Knight who was sent to isolate and destroy him on his birthday- the monster possessed the ability to redistribute the Ranger’s force in order to fry the weapons they used against him. When the storm-bringing chimera monster Goatan froze the Megazord, Zack analyzed what little resources the Megazord had left and used it to regain dominance in the battle.
After Tommy Oliver joined the team, he and Zack quickly became close friends as a result of their similar interests. When Tommy was nervous about trying to engage a romantic relationship with Kimberly, it was Zack who Tommy sought for advise. Before Tommy appeared (or if Tommy is not at the Youth Center) Zack is usually Jason’s sparring partner when practicing Karate. Tommy and Zack would also act as sparring partners for each other, as well. Though Jason was the Ranger Tommy selected to take on his Green Ranger powers after Rita eliminated Tommy’s link to the Morphing Grid, Zack is the only other individual to don the Dragon Shield when Tommy gave it to him so that it’s enhanced regenerative powers could heal Zack from the Oysterizer monster’s acidic attack.
In the Season 2 episode “Green No More, Part 1”, Zack’s cousin Curtis was introduced, who would have a small recurring role throughout the middle of the season. Curtis was very similar to Zack due to their similar interests in dance and music, as well as their smooth-talking speech pattern. He also formed a friendship with Trini’s crush Richie. The two once even managed to fight off a group of Putties while they were skating.
Along with Jason and Trini Zack was chosen to attend the World Peace Conference. Zack’s powers were transferred to Adam Park.
The 2017 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie will be released in January 13, 2017.
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