Monday morning, Entertainment Weekly revealed the first look at Rita Repulsa, played by Elizabeth Banks, in Lionsgate’s Power Rangers reboot scheduled for next year. The image seemed to go over well with fans for the most part, with skeptics and traditionalists sprinkled in. It deviates from the space witch’s more famous look with hooped hair and bell-shaped dress with thorny green armor and golden claws on her nails.
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At first sight, she resembles some sort of flower, barbed but beautiful, even smudges of dirt cover her–she did escape a space dumpster afterall–and noticing her skeletal structure with her raised brows, another image comes to mind that makes things all that much more apparent.
A dragon.
Very little detail has been given about how exactly Rita is connected to everything or if they’re going to keep her origin intact with the her war with Zordon of Eltar and his Power Rangers. So far, we know very vague details that the Rangers are “chosen by destiny” to stop an alien force, but broader ideas dealing with the Zords and such have yet to be revealed. There’s also no mention of Tommy Oliver, the Green Ranger, this go around thus far, but what if we still get some Dragonzord power?
In the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers series, the Dragonzord just happens to be laying dormant in the Angel Grove harbor until Rita creates her evil Green Ranger and gives him the Zord as a weapon, along with the Dragon Dagger, and her own forged Sword of Darkness. Though, with Tommy out of the picture, could Rita herself wield the Dragon Dagger and summon the Dragonzord herself? It’s a huge possibility. We’re still unsure about the history of the Dragonzord as a separate entity compared to the rest of the Zords that were bestowed to the Rangers by Zordon. In the new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic series over at BOOM!, we see that Tommy and Rita are more connected than initially thought, with Tommy
Rita needed an ultimate weapon to fight back Zordon’s army, so there’s a solid chance that the most evil sorceress in the galaxy rides the Dragonzord into the fray against her enemies. Taking a deeper look at her costume, it looks like armor in a way. The scales on her bracers look reptilian and the pieces of her dress continue that scaly design. All signs point to Rita possibly being the pilot, or in someway control, of the Dragonzord in some shape or form.
Rita has a history of having Zords on her side in the past. Goldar, her general, piloted Cyclopsis, an ancient war machine that once defeated the Megazord. There’s also Lord Zedd’s colossal Zord, Serpentera, that also has the construct of an ancient dragon and extremely powerful. It could be that Rita has been retconned to owning Serpentera, but with Rita having a personal connection to the Green Ranger, controlling the Dragonzord is all that much more likely.
What do you readers think? Are the creators of the reboot planting the seeds for a Green Ranger appearance later on, or just coincidence?
