While Mighty Morphin Power Rangers holds a nostalgic place in the hearts of many ’90s kids, a new docuseries has revealed troubling realities behind the scenes.
The April 7 episode of Investigation Discovery’s Hollywood Demons, titled “Dark Side of the Power Rangers,” revisited the hit 1993 series with a critical lens.
Though the show captured young imaginations with its teenage superheroes saving the world, it faced backlash over racial stereotypes—most notably, casting Walter Emanuel Jones, a Black actor, as the Black Ranger, and Thuy Trang, a Vietnamese actress, as the Yellow Ranger, according to PEOPLE.
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In Hollywood Demons, former Power Rangers head writer Tony Oliver said that while making the show, “None of us are thinking stereotypes.” He explained, “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 said. He described Jones as the character who “seemed to have the swagger of the group,” while Trang was “the peaceful one, who tends to be the conscience of the group.” Oliver also noted that Trang, who died in 2001 at age 27, was not the first person cast as Trini (the yellow ranger); the original actress was Audri Dubois, who left after the pilot over a pay dispute. Trang was cast and edited into the pilot.
“Dark Side of the Power Rangers” also features footage recorded by stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt. In one clip, Jones tells the camera, “My name’s Walter Jones, I play Zack. I’m Black, and I play the Black Ranger — go figure.”
Behind the colorful suits and action-packed scenes, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was marked by internal strife. Series creator Haim Saban reportedly developed a pattern of cycling out lead cast members.
Original Rangers Jones (Black Ranger), Trang (Yellow Ranger), and Austin St. John (Red Ranger) exited after season two, citing concerns over low pay and unsafe working conditions.
Their replacements included Johnny Yong Bosch, a Korean American actor, as the new Black Ranger, and Karan Ashley, a Black actress, as the new Yellow Ranger.
In 2013, director Shuki Levy told Complex that Jones and Trang’s casting “wasn’t intentional at all. At that time, Haim and I were new to this country. We didn’t grow up in the same environment that exists in America with regard to skin color. We grew up in Israel, where being a Black person is like being any kind of color. It’s not something we talked about all the time. It wasn’t a big issue.”
Amy Jo Johnson, who played the first Pink Ranger, told the outlet, “Walter Jones used to crack good-humored jokes about that. I think it’s funny if it was done unintentionally by the big bosses. But really? Come on. It wouldn’t happen today.”
Jones, now 54, told Entertainment Weekly in 2018 of the impact of playing Zack, “I’ve got letters from kids that are Caucasian who didn’t grow up around Black people and they say, ‘I started taking hip hop classes because of you; and when I did that, I got diverse friends and they ended up being some of my best friends. It changed my life and I just wanted to say thank you.’ ”
“What I also get a lot from my fans is ‘Man, I wanted to be a hero like you, and so this is what I did with my life,’ ” he said. “All I did was go and work as an actor on this TV show, but I inspired people to be something. It’s very humbling.”
The original Power Rangers lineup also featured David Yost as Blue Ranger Billy Cranston and Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver, who transitioned from Green Ranger to White Ranger. Frank died by suicide in 2022, casting a somber shadow over the legacy of the beloved series.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers still paved the way for a sprawling franchise, spawning the 1995 feature film, numerous spin-off series, and a lucrative line of toys and action figures.
The brand saw a reboot in 2017 with a new Power Rangers movie, and in 2023, Netflix revisited the original with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, reuniting several of the beloved cast members.
