Adults of a certain age will know the name of Jason David Frank, the man who played Tommy Oliver aka Green Ranger in the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Since the show ended, Frank has been a huge supporter of the franchise and is currently trying to get a role in the upcoming Lionsgate reboot.
Yesterday saw the launch of Adi Shankar’s Power/Rangers, a gritty R-rated fan film which starred Katee Sackoff and James Van Der Beek [watch it here]. Fans loved it, but what did Jason David Frank think?
“I was approached about a year, year and a half ago by the guy who made it to be in the film, ” he posted to his Facebook page. “There were a lot of fan films going on at the time and me and Aaron, Bat in the Sun were working on the Green Ranger project and future stuff like Green Ranger Beat Down and things like that. I heard the storyline and… God… I know there are a lot of fans out there who love it, but I’m a PG-13 guy. The cuss words, the drugs and all the other stuff… it doesn’t fly with me.”
“Let me explain,” he continues. “Everyone loves Power Rangers, but they’re still connected with adults and kids. The Super Mega Force and Power Rangers: Dino Charge are still on Nickelodeon. So you can’t take a brand like this and reboot it to be so dark and gritty. You can’t separate it. The adults love it because they’re like, ‘this is our show from when we were kids’, but you’ve got to fall back to the kids that want to watch Power Rangers. You know, our inner geek inside is going, ‘yes, this is what we wanted, we’re all grown up now’ but at the same time we’ve got to be responsible and say this is a kid’s brand. You know I’m 41, so you’re probably thinking I’m an old person, but I’m talking the truth.”
“Do I like the movie… here’s the thing,” he adds. “I want to be in the real Power Rangers movie. So Lionsgate let’s get this rolling, I want to be in the real movie. I’ve saved my character for so long. And when I bring my character out in movies and things like that, I want it to be legit. I want it to be a Saban blessed and approved project. As for the Lionsgate movies, we’ll see what happens. But you’ve got to have Tommy in the movie, come on. So, I did know about the movie, I was offered a role, I don’t feel bad about taking it. I saw [Katee] Sackoff who plays Kimberly in the movie two weekends ago. And she didn’t say anything!
So, not the biggest fan of the project. But a good way to continue his plug for a role in the new movie. What did you make of the fan movie?
Originally published February 25, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
