The Power Rangers live-action Shattered Grid trailer made quite an impression, and Jason David Frank explains who that trailer was really made for.
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The live-action trailer was created by Power Rangers writer Kyle Higgins and Frank, who took on the role of Lord Drakkon, the evil Tommy Oliver from an alternate dimension in the comics. Frank spoke to ComicBook.com’s Jim Viscardi about the trailer, including the fact that it was truly meant to resonate with the longtime fan.
“I think I told Kyle the other day, I said, “How does it feel?” I’ve been involved with Power Rangers for 25 years,” Frank said. “I feel that this is just one of those moments in Power Ranger history because it’s approved by Saban that it just rattled the industry. This will be remembered by a lot of people, and one of the things I was telling Brian (Casentini) at Saban that this is for your age group, for the 28-year-olds, this is for 30-year-olds. I mean, safe enough for kids too, but this is for you guys that grew up on the show to be like, “Oh, no, he got long hair. Dude, homie’s back.” That’s kind of where we were going for.”
Higgins and Frank had lots of creative freedom, but it was still important to have Saban endorse it.
“Ultimately, we were 100% in control, and of course, we wanted to get Saban signing off on it because it’s a big thing for Saban to step behind us and put their logo and be proud of this product,” Frank said. “It’s not a fan film, it’s not, “Cool, I want to try to be a character.” This is, “Hey, we’re validated by Saban and by Boom Comics.” Which makes me very extremely happy because I love the brand, and there are a lot of things in store for the fans around the world from all different avenues of media to films.”
“There’s just so many things in store for the fans, not just saying with my character, but overall, and it’s exciting to see Saban step into this world of what it could be and how popular too, this could be,” Frank continued. “And within 24 hours, that one website got over 2 million views, within 24 hours. That’s tracking huge.”
This was done to support Saban Brands and BOOM! Studios’ Shattered Grid event, but it is also a nice proof of concept.
“Yeah, I think it’s proof of concept,” Frank said. “I think it’s razzing up the industry a little bit. Showing people what filmmakers can do even for a certain amount of money that we have. And just, I guess, embracing the Power Ranger fan in kind of a different world of where the current fans are now, and I think it’s a great thing. Boom is … obviously, the comic book is doing really great. And when things happen, this happened fast. You don’t understand. It wasn’t like we planned it for a year. It was like, “Okay, here it is. Let’s do it.” And so, things happened fast.”
Fans can check out Shattered Grid now in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #25 and Go Go Power Rangers #8, both of which are in stores.
