Netflix’s long-awaited Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 30th-anniversary special is finally streaming, and it offers pretty much everything fans would want and/or expect from such a nostalgic slice of child-friendly entertainment. There’s all the cheesy dialogue, cheap effects, and color-coordinated fight choreography you could ask for, but in a surprising development, the hour-long special also hits a little harder than is traditional for this franchise.
While there is a celebratory feel to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, thanks to David Yost (Billy the Blue Ranger), Walter Emmanuel Jones (Zack the Black Ranger), Catherine Sutherland (Kat the second Pink Ranger), Steve Cardenas (Rocky the second Red Ranger), Johnny Yong Bosch (Adam the second Black Ranger), and Karan Ashley (Aisha the second Yellow Ranger) all returning, the loss of two beloved members of the PR family still hangs over the special.
Thuy Trang, the original Yellow Ranger, died in 2001, and so the death of Trini Kwan is the inciting incident of Once & Always. Since production completed on the special, however, Jason David Frank (Tommy the Green Ranger) also passed away in November 2022. While neither actor appears in new footage, then, the special finds the perfect way to honor them in its final moments.
A clip from MMPR season two’s first episode is played, in which Amy Jo Johnson’s Kimberly Hart (who is likewise absent from the special) sings the original song “Down the Road.” The episode is then dedicated to both Trang and Frank’s memories.
Power Rangers fans don’t expect to end up blubbing ugly tears after watching this show, but that’s exactly what happened here, as Twitter is filling up with Once & Always viewers admitting the special left them welling up.
All in all, Once & Always serves as a worthy way of commemorating this major milestone for the morphenomenal franchise. Netflix is set to follow it up with Power Rangers: Cosmic Fury later this year.