Power Rangers Star Reveals How Painful 2017 Reboot Suits Were (But They Still Loved Them)

One of the more underrated entries in the Power Rangers franchise is the 2017 Power Rangers Live-Action Reboot, which introduced a new team of Rangers and a reimagining of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers mythology. The film introduced all-new, more alien-style Ranger suits and Zords as well, and while the suits looked incredible, one Power Rangers star reveals that actually wearing the costumes could only be described as painful, and that was in addition to a truly unexpected hurdle that didn’t make the process any easier.

In a recent interview with The Joe Vulpis Podcast, Power Rangers star RJ Cyler, who played Billy the Blue Ranger in the film, was asked what the Ranger suits felt like. While Cyler loved how he looked in the suit, actually wearing it was a rather painful experience. “Stretching those like, you feel so good looking at yourself in them, but the pain that you go through being in them, is like okay, take this off me please,” Cyler said. “Oh man, it kill the shoulders. Oh it kills.”

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Cyler also revealed an unexpected hurdle he and the other Rangers encountered when it came to their costumes. While everyone did wardrobe tests before the costumes were made, by the time the actors were actually wearing the costumes, some of them experienced growth spurts, and that led to another challenge for Cyler during filming.

“So when they made the suits, they took our measurements first, right? We did these whole like 3D body castings and things like that. Then they made the suit, and then by the time that we got to wear the suits, we had all either grown because we had growth spurts, and or we just, you know, having fun at craft services. And so my suit, there’s a bathroom portal if you will on the suit, and mine started in the right place, but when we started filming it was at my belly button dude. So like, you can’t remake the suit, it takes too long, so I just had to struggle through that,” Cyler said.

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Part of the issue with the suits was the presence of multiple layers you have to deal with when either taking the costume off or putting it on, and it was only made worse when the film started, since the costumes had to be worn and stretched out before they could really function.

“So a lot of the costume entails or involves rubber, right? And so you had to stretch and wear out the rubber so it could fit comfortably,” Cyler said. “So our first two weeks shooting in the suits, that was torture. We had to sit down in chairs, but we all almost couldn’t move, so costume or somebody would have to help us get up, and it took an hour and a half to put them on, and then it took an hour to take them off.”

“There’s pieces, so that’s five layers that ya’ll see us in. That’s like five separate layers of things, and you have to take them off one by one. I prefer hair and makeup, because the patience, because you can’t sit down, you have to stand up the whole time. And even when it’s time to put your helmet on, you still have to stand up because they have to wire them, and then they have to put our earwigs in so we can hear,” Cyler said. “Ludi had an earwig malfunction, and the helmet takes a lot to come off, so he couldn’t just take it off. There’s a helmet, a rubber hood, there’s another…it’s like three cloth hoods that have to go under that so the sweat keeps, but then there’s a fan that’s on the inside of the helmet also.”

Despite the challenges, the cast made a really fun film, and you can watch the 2017 Power Rangers Reboot now on Netflix.

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