Bryan Cranston compares new direction of Power Rangers to The Dark Knight

July 6th 2016, 4:56pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Don't expect to see the goofy, low-budget version of the Power Rangers you thought was the coolest as a kid when Lionsgate reimagines the franchise for the big screen next spring. According to Bryan Cranston, recently cast as Zordon for the reboot, this take on POWER RANGERS will come sans cheese and be much more grounded… kinda like another big franchise tentpole we've seen over the last decade.

“At first I was, to be honest with you, I was reticent to looking at the role because I remember the television series was kind of farcical and silly and ‘pow’ and ‘zow’ — weird movements and things like that. I was like, ‘Oh, OK,’” said the actor, who used to do voice work on the “Power Rangers” TV show.

“I wasn’t really high on it until I talked to the producer and read the script and talked to the director. After that I went, ‘This is different.’” He continued, “This is as different a reimagining as the ‘Batman’ television series as it became the ‘Batman’ movie series. You can’t compare those two, and nor can you compare this movie version of the ‘Power Rangers’ to that television series. It’s unrecognizable for the most part. There are tenets of the folklore that you hold onto for sure, but the inspiration is different, and the sensibility of it, and the approach to the film making is completely different.”

And yes, that's Christopher Nolan's Bat-verse he's talking about. Granted, he doesn't mean you should expect something as dark and serious as THE DARK KNIGHT. However, you might want to prepare for something that treats the Power Rangers as less of an over-the-top joke and more of an action-based franchise kickstarter.

“Yeah,” but he added, “I don’t know if the tone is as dark as that because you’re dealing with teenagers. So the appropriateness of that, and real teenage life, and going through high school and the cliques and the popularity or lack thereof, and the bullies and all the different sections and sub-sections of high school life, and the insecurities of these kids and things like that — hopes and dreams — and you embrace all of that into a retelling of the ‘Power Rangers.’ And what you would get is this new version, this new reimagined version.”

We've heard these sorts of comparisons before. Given how successful Nolan's Bat-flicks were and how they became sort of the bar of excellence that every studio was trying to clear with their superhero films, it's no surprise that even the Power Rangers might aim for something similar to THE DARK KNIGHT. However, let's not blow this out of proportion either. Cranston sounds very reasonable in saying that there is no way what the TV series was for the Power Rangers in the past could work on the big screen today. And it couldn't. That doesn't mean it has to be a dour approach. But I'd expect something much less hokey.

POWER RANGERS is scheduled for theatrical release on March 24, 2017.