The head writer of 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' admits it was a mistake to cast Black and Asian actors to play the Black and Yellow Rangers.
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‘Power Rangers’ Writer Says ‘It Was a Mistake’ to Cast Black and Asian Actors as Black Ranger and Yellow Ranger: ‘None of Us’ Were ‘Thinking Stereotypes’
By
Zack Sharf
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Courtesy Everett Collection
“Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers” head writer Tony Oliver admits in the new Investigation Discovery series “Hollywood Demons” that it was a “mistake” to cast a Black actor to play the Black Ranger and an Asian actor to play the Yellow Ranger (via
Entertainment Weekly). The series kicked off in August 1993 on Fox Kids with Walter Emanuel Jones as Zack Taylor (the first Black Ranger) and Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan (the first Yellow Ranger).
Oliver says in the documentary that “none of us [were] thinking stereotypes” when these casting decisions were originally made, which is why the show ran for two seasons with “the Black character the Black Ranger and the Asian character the Yellow Ranger.” It wasn’t until “my assistant pointed it out in a meeting one day” that Oliver realized these castings were upholding stereotypes. Oliver added: “It was such a mistake.”
During the show’s casting, Oliver said the Black ranger “seemed to have the swagger of the group” and the Yellow Ranger was “the peaceful one, who tends to be the conscience of the group.” They were looking for actors who had these qualities. Oliver noted that “Thuy was not our original Yellow Ranger,” as it was Audri Dubois who was originally cast in that role but left the show due to a pay dispute. Trang was then cast and edited into the already-shot pilot.
In the Investigation Discovery documentary, camcorder footage taken on set by one of the show’s stunt coordinators shows the cast was aware of the stereotypical castings for the Black and Yellow Rangers. As Jones says on camera: “My name’s Walter Jones, I play Zack. I’m Black, and I play the Black Ranger — go figure.”
“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” co-creator Shuki Levy
previously told Complex that Jones and Trang’s casting “wasn’t intentional at all. At that time, Haim [Saban] 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.”
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