If you haven’t seen POWER RANGERS yet, be warned that there will be spoilers for the movie’s mid-credit scene. Dean Israelite’s POWER RANGERS was finally unleashed last week, and we were reintroduced to those five teens with attitude as they endeavored to save the world from Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks). It’s still a little too early to say for certain whether Haim Saban’s plan for a six-film POWER RANGERS franchise will come to fruition, but the mid-credit sequence certainly gives a hint as to what we can expect from a potential sequel.
After defeating Rita Repulsa, the Power Rangers wind up in detention, along with an unseen character whose name is certainly familiar to POWER RANGERS fans: Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger. Unlike the Rangers, Tommy has already bolted from detention and all we see is an empty desk with a green jacket on it as the supervisor calls out Oliver's name Ferris Bueller-style. While chatting with Entertainment Weekly, director Dean Israelite spoke about the sequence and whether it was always the intention to tease the future Green Ranger.
Yes it was. We had shot, actually, a different tease for Tommy that wasn’t working out as well, and when we did a bit of additional photography, we put this version in which we think plays much better. [The original version] took place in the cafeteria and it just wasn’t as cool or dynamic, but it was basically the same thing. This felt much more organic to what was going on at the end of the movie. It was a part of that end scene in detention with all the other kids, so we just added it on to that. We shot it in four hours.
If you thought POWER RANGERS gave you teenagers with attitude, well, you ain't seen nothing yet! "Wait 'til you see Tommy," Israelite said. "He brings it in bucketloads." X-treme groan! The role of Tommy Oliver hasn't been cast yet, but it's a good bet that we'll be seeing him, or her, at some point down the line. Although fans of the POWER RANGERS franchise obviously know who Tommy Oliver is, Dean Israelite seems confident that the scene will be just as entertaining for those who are experiencing the POWER RANGERS for the first time.
I think the end credits scene is entertaining for non-fans and fans in that you kind of understand that there is someone who isn’t there that’s really important, and what does that all mean? I agree that it’s the one thing in the movie that is so much more enjoyable if you’re [already] a fan, but I think that’s really typical of movies that are based on pre-existing content. I find I always wait for the end credits scene in Marvel movies, and if I’m not familiar with the [franchise] I really have no idea what just happened, but I get it. It’s part of the conceit of this kind of movie.
POWER RANGERS is now playing in theaters, so check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray!