The Power Rangers anniversary special honoured two of the franchise’s late stars.
This week, Netflix debuted Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, which centres on a “unlikely young hero who takes her rightful place among the Power Rangers after tragedy strikes.”
Many of the original cast members, including David Yost, Walter Emanuel Jones, Steve Cardenas, Johnny Yong Bosch, Karan Ashley, Catherine Sutherland, Barbara Goodson, and Richard Steven Horvitz, are present in the film, which was released to mark the TV show’s three-season run between 1993 and 1995.
The show also paid tribute to former Yellow and Green ranger actors Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank, who had passed away since appearing on the series, at the close of the hour-long event.
Trang passed away in a vehicle accident in 2001, while Frank committed suicide in 2022.
The last seconds included a vintage film of Amy Jo Johnson singing about how “memories will never die” while portraying Kimberly Hart, the Pink Ranger, during the course of the show’s first three seasons.
The scene is from season two’s episode 11 titled The Song of Guitardo, which saw Tommy (Frank) being serenaded by Kimberly after losing all of his Green Ranger abilities.
The song, Down the Road, was reportedly written by Johnson (who declined to participate in the special) and included the lyrics about how the memories would always be ‘in our hearts, they’ll always live and never say goodbye’.
Photos of the two late stars then appeared with the caption: ‘In loving memory of Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank’.
Speaking to EW, Jones said the scene was ‘very poignant’.
‘In that [season 2] episode, we were saying goodbye to Tommy, and it was a moment that we were all sharing. And to be able to take that piece of history and apply it to current day history…. I was happy that we had that as a way to say goodbye in a most honourable way — and to get to share our grief,’ he said.
Meanwhile, his co-star Yost added that it was ‘really difficult’ for him to watch and ‘have the realisation that both Jason and Thuy are gone’.
‘As a cast, we were like brothers and sisters, we all got along. You know, we would fight every now and then, but we were a team and a family. I’m just so glad we got to honour Thuy and David in this way,’ he said.
Originally created as an homage to Trang, the programme follows Minh, the Charlize Kersch-played character’s daughter, as she assumes her mother’s role and carries on her mother’s legacy.
Tommy appeared in the programme wearing his outfit and helmet but spent the majority of it frozen and scaled down because Frank had chosen not to participate in it and passed away after production had ended.
However, it concluded with the protagonist moving back in with his family, which included his wife Kat (played by Catherine Sutherland, the second Pink Ranger), and their little son J.J.
With 27 seasons produced since 1993, The Power Rangers is one of the most well-liked children’s TV series in the previous 30 years.
In addition, they appeared in three different films that were out in 1995, 1997, and 2017.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always is streaming on Netflix.
Source My Celebrity Life.