Back when Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston was doing interviews for his role as James Gordon in the animated home video feature Batman: Year One, he made mention that he had been reluctant to return to the world of voice acting. Yes, Walter White got his career started by doing dubbing work for anime films back when there wasn’t a lot of attention — or in some cases genuine care — paid to these productions. One of his gigs? Providing dubbing for a show known in Japan as Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, which became better known as the founding season of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Take a listen to one of the greatest actors of our time pretending to be doofy monsters:
Well, Cranston has decided to return to the franchise in a big way by portraying Zordon, the mystical leader of the Power Rangers, in the new feature film that will be releasing next year. The poetic justice and cheeky self-awareness of Cranston’s casting is enough to make this film necessary viewing. Although his role as Walter White proved Cranston is an outstanding talent, he’s not above having some hammy fun from time to time.
Truth be told, I wasn’t interested in Power Rangers. It was fun when I was a young’un, but I grew out of it fairly quickly. I did manage to see most of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger in its original form, and that’s definitely something any fan of the franchise should seek out. However, Cranston’s meta casting has made this must-see material for me. I’m hoping this signals that the film won’t be taking itself too seriously. This is a property that’s built around teenagers in color-coordinated costumes fighting ridiculous monsters that end up enlarging to kaiju size, only to be defeated by those teenagers’ giant dinosaur robots. This ain’t King Lear. Have an over-the-top action figure mentality and act accordingly. Here’s hoping Bryan Cranston will do just that.
