You might be surprised to hear that one of the more popular Rangers originally hated the franchise, and it was all Tommy Oliver’s fault.
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A variety of Rangers assembled this year at Yestercon, and during a panel Power Rangers In Space Red Ranger actor Christopher Khayman Lee (Andros) revealed that he originally didn’t want the part (via Steven Alvarez).
“I did not want to be a Power Ranger,” said Lee. “When I first heard about it I was living in Florida and my manager said “hey, gotcha an audition”, and I was like “cool, what are we doing?”. She was like “You’re going for Power Rangers” and I was like (gestures fist and shakes head) No. Really don’t want to. I don’t want to.”
As for why? Well, you can thank the Green Ranger Tommy Oliver for that.
“The reason why, when I grew up I had very long hair. Not like as long as Tracy’s hair (points to Tracy Lynn Cruz) but close, pretty close. I always had it in a ponytail, and every kid in my neighborhood came up to me and they would always say “you look like Tommy! Look at you you’ve got hair like Tommy! You look just like Tommy!” Tommy, Tommy, Tommy (bangs table) Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. I didn’t know anything about Power Rangers, but I already hated Power Rangers because all I ever heard about is Tommy and so I don’t want to hear nothin about Tommy ya know?”
After the constant comparisons, Lee wanted nothing to do with the series, but being an actor he still went and tried out. His nonchalance obviously worked in his favor.
“So when they said “You’re going out for Power Rangers” I was like “I don’t care. No, I don’t want to”, and that’s the reason why I booked it because I walked in and I did not want to get it.”
Power Rangers Dino Charge Red Ranger Brennan Mejia had a similar somewhat negative experience with Power Rangers before he got the part, so he summed it all up quite nicely.
So if you want to be a Red Ranger, don’t care (laughs). That’s the moral of the story.”
Power Rangers In Space is one of the more well regarded seasons of the show and aired from 1998 to 1999. It starred Lee (Red Ranger), Roger Velasco (Black Ranger), Cruz (Yellow Ranger), Selwyn Ward (Blue Ranger), Patricia Ja Lee (Pink Ranger), and Justin Nimmo (Silver Ranger) as the core Rangers.
The current season of Power Rangers airs on Nickelodeon, and you can catch Power Rangers Ninja Steel every Saturday morning at 9 am.
