‘Energy Rangers’ Author Says Racially-Coded Casting Was A ‘Mistake’ – The Boston Courier

One “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” inventive insists nobody was “thinking stereotypes” when the present made two questionable casting decisions again within the ’90s.

Many years after the beloved youngsters’ superhero sequence debuted in 1993, former head author Tony Oliver mentioned it was a foul choice for the present to solid a Black actor because the Black Ranger and an Asian actor because the Yellow Ranger.

“It was such a mistake,” he mentioned within the “Dark Side of the Power Rangers” episode of Investigation Discovery’s “Hollywood Demons” sequence, as recapped by Entertainment Weekly.

Oliver mentioned he didn’t clock the racially loaded optics till his assistant “pointed it out in a meeting one day.”

It wasn’t instantly clear who was liable for casting Walter Emanuel Jones because the Black Ranger and Thuy Trang because the Yellow Ranger, however Oliver mentioned “none of us [were] thinking stereotypes” through the making of the present.

Jones’ character, Zack Taylor, “seemed to have the swagger of the group,” whereas Trang’s Trini Kwan was “the peaceful one, who tends to be the conscience of the group,” Oliver added.

He additionally famous, “Thuy was not our original Yellow Ranger,” mentioning the character was first performed by multiracial actor Audri Dubois, who left over a pay dispute after the pilot.

Whereas Oliver characterised the colour decisions as purely coincidental, Jones appeared to acknowledge the awkward connotation on the time. Per EW, the docuseries consists of behind-the-scenes footage exhibiting the actor saying, “My name’s Walter Jones, I play Zack. I’m Black, and I play the Black Ranger… go figure.”

Nevertheless, Jones has additionally mentioned he didn’t even discover the awkward casting till others pointed it out.

“Nobody really talked about me playing the Black Ranger at first,” he mentioned in a 2014 interview. “But after Trang was hired everyone was like ‘Wait a minute! The Yellow Ranger is Asian and you’re the black ranger and you’re a black guy.’ They were going to replace Audri Dubois with another girl either way, but she just happened to be Asian.”

Later recasts of the Black and Yellow Rangers helped blur the controversy because the present went on.