Near the beginning of his career, Bryan Cranston did quite a lot of voice-over work for Saban, including several roles on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and now, in a way, he's come full circle by taking on the role of Zordon in Dean Israelite's POWER RANGERS. With just a little over two months until the debut of POWER RANGERS, Bryan Cranston spoke with IGN and described his role of Zordan as a "frustrated mentor" to this new group of young heroes.
He is a frustrated mentor of these kids. They’re not advancing as I’d hoped. Some of them are not taking this seriously, the responsibility that has been placed upon them or that they have been chosen for. And yet, you’re a mentor. It’s almost like being a coach. You want to break down the individuality of them so that they can grow as a team.
Despite his past history with Saban, Cranston was reluctant to accept the role of Zordan as he still had memories of the cheesy nature of the series. "I thought, ‘Power Rangers? It’s kind of the [1960s] Batman television show – Pow! Zing! Whap!" said Cranston. "And I had a phone call with the director and he said, ‘Think of it this way… Like Batman came from TV and became a completely different animal in the movies, so too is it here. We’re going to take this and revamp it and it’s going to be grounded and real.’ And I thought ‘Okay, with that, let me read it.’" Upon reading the script, Bryan Cranston admitted that Israelite was right, "The kids sound like real kids and not everyone is this great athlete and everything is working out." At the moment, our only glimpse at what Cranston will look like as Zordon has come from a cell phone video capture of the “Power Rangers Movie” virtual reality experience at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
In a separate interview with The AV Club, Cranston sang the praises of POWER RANGERS by saying that he believes the film will turn some heads upon release.
I’ve seen a lot of it, because I’m doing ADR on it. And it’s impressive. Dean Israelite really has a nice touch. As big and as powerful as Power Rangers could be, he has a nice touch to keep it grounded, and real. I think it’s gonna turn some heads, I really do.
POWER RANGERS will morph into theaters on March 24, 2017.