32 Years Later, a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Writer Addresses Racially Insensitive Casting

It’s a bit of early 1990s casting so “wait, they did that?” that it would never happen today, but if you watch vintage episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which ran for three seasons across 1993-1995 on Fox, you can’t help but notice. The Black Ranger is played by Black actor Walter Emanuel Jones, and the Yellow Ranger is played by Asian actor Thuy Trang. It’s a groan-worthy stereotype that somehow slipped past the writers at the time, as one of the show’s creative mind now admits. This tidbit comes from “Dark Side of the Power Rangers,” a new episode in Investigation Discovery’s Hollywood Demons series (reported on by Entertainment Weekly). As you can tell by the title, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at the more troubling aspects of the series, including that casting. Former Power Rangers writer Tony Oliver appears on the episode and admits, “None of us [were] thinking stereotypes” at the time. He also points out that the Yellow Ranger was re-cast after the show’s pilot episode, ... Read full article.