Five Big Takeaways from the Power Rangers Teaser Trailer

The first official teaser trailer for Power Rangers is here and it is AWESOME. Lionsgate’s new movie looks to be a bold adaptation of the longrunning series, featuring new versions of familiar characters.

We’ve broken down the trailer and pulled out five intriguing moments that show how Power Rangers is similar and different from the original source material.

Teen Delinquents

The original Power Rangers team were a bunch of model students, but it looks like the new Power Rangers movie throws that concept out of the window in a hurry. We don’t know what all the kids did, but Jason and the others meet because they’re spending their weekends together in Saturday detention. 

Jason’s “crime” seems particularly bad, as he’s shown with an ankle monitor and moping over a wrecked truck. 

Even Kimberly, the “good girl” of the group, gets ostracized by her friends for Saturday detention. One early scene shows several girls (presumably Kimberly’s teammates) mocking Kimberly in a bathroom, leading her to cut her hair short in response. 

Clearly, these new Power Rangers are no angels, which means we could actually see them show some personality. 

Super-Strength and More

After discovering the Power Coins in an abandoned quarry of some sort, Jason and his friends quickly realize that taking the coins have “changed” them somehow. Jason shows off his rippling six pack of abs, while his friends also realize they have some sort of superpowers. Billy gets into a brief confrontation with a bully (we’re guessing Bulk) who tries to headbutt him, but the “fight” goes horribly wrong and Bulk ends up knocking himself out. 

A short while later, the team gathers back at the quarry and decides to test their powers by literally jumping over a cliff.

The original Power Rangers were skilled athletes, but didn’t have any superpowers until they actually morphed into the Rangers. It seems the new movie wants to give the Rangers a little more to do outside of the suits.

A Surprising Romance

Another potential big change to the Power Rangers mythos is a possible romance between Jason and Kimberly, the future Red and Pink Rangers. Early in the trailer, Jason does a double take when he sees Kimberly with her new, short hair cut. And later we see Jason and Kimberly kissing in what appears to be Jason’s bedroom.

In the television show, the big romance was between the Green Ranger Tommy and Kimberly. Tommy and Kimberly instantly had an attraction to each other when Tommy first appeared, and the two had a long-running romance for several seasons. The romance between Tommy and Kimberly is a major plot point of Boom’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic book.

So why pair up Jason and Kimberly? Well, in addition to Jason rocking those chiseled abs, it could set up a big source of conflict and drama once Tommy arrives in a future movie. 

Rita Repulsa!!!

Jason isn’t the only person visiting Kimberly at night. The trailer also reveals a very dangerous Rita Repulsa confronting Kimberly at night in her bedroom. Rita hovers above Kimberly and off-handedly mentions that she’s killed “rangers” before. Kimberly quickly kicks her into the ceiling, leading to a fight between the pair. 

We’ve already seen a few images of Rita (played by Elizabeth Banks), but this shot seems to confirm that Rita will have a much more active role in the movie than in the shows. Rita was the mastermind behind most of the Power Rangers’ early problems, but she rarely actually physically fought the Rangers. 

This Rita looks much more deadly than the original, and clearly she’s out for blood. 

First Actual Morphin’

We only get a tease of the Power Rangers suits, but it’s pretty darn awesome. As the Rangers stand inside what appears to be Zordon’s Command Center, a surge of energy traps all five Rangers and Jason’s Power Coin begins to expand around him.

While we don’t get a full look at the suit, the scene does confirm the theory that the suits are actually an expansion of the Power Coins themselves.