Power Rangers' Red Ranger, Dacre Montgomery, spoke about possible sequel plans when we caught up with the actor at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. The reboot was released earlier this year and was shortly followed by reports that Lionsgate had planned to turn the franchise into a multi-film series, with up to five sequels being mooted.
If a second movie did emerge, it seems likely that Tommy the Green Ranger would make an appearance. In a mid-credits sequence, the Rangers' teacher announced a new student by the name of Tommy Oliver, however the scene stopped short of showing the actual character. Interestingly, there had previously been speculation that the new version of Tommy could be a female character, rather male, as with the original version played by Jason David Frank.
Related: Power Rangers Green Ranger Concept Art
We caught up with Montgomery at SDCC recently and asked about the possibility of a sequel. Here's what he had to say: "Ah! I feel so bad. I can’t say anything on this front, on the Power Rangers front." When pressed on the possibility of a sequel, he continued, "I can’t. I can’t say anything. I’m sorry, but I am glad you liked it. Thank you." We also asked Montgomery about the speculation that the Green Ranger would have been introduced in Power Rangers as a female character:
Yeah. I think I was talking about that when we were doing a press conference in L.A. I mean, for me, it was just the whole idea of there’s three boys. There’s two girls. What if the sixth Ranger was a girl? I don’t know. I think it’s open for interpretation. That was just mine and a couple of other cast members’ interpretation. Yeah. But also there’s also some ground there for the OG fans about, like, Tommy is a guy so I’m not wanting to mess with that at the same time as advocating for a girl. So we shall see. I’m not saying there’s a sequel. I’m not saying it’s a girl or a boy, but I hope that if it does go in that direction that everyone can be satisfied with it and that it can be conducive to being a good movie, a good sequel.
Although Montgomery is clearly unable to divulge any concrete details about plans for a sequel, it certainly seems that the possibility of a second film is still at least on the table at this stage. Dacre also raises an interesting point about the Green Ranger squaring up the gender balance, although it's somewhat refreshing that he also understands how original fans may prefer a more authentic version of the character.
If Power Rangers did opt to gender-swap the Green Ranger, they should perhaps prepare for a little bit of backlash. Recent examples of similar castings have largely been praised and accepted but there remains a number of people who are resistant to the idea. This was perhaps most recently seen with the announcement of Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor in Doctor Who.
However, one of the best elements in the recent Power Rangers reboot was the diversity of characters, with Blue Ranger Billy being depicted as on the autism spectrum and Yellow Ranger Trini shown to be a non-heterosexual character. As such, a female Green Ranger would make complete sense but, of course, a sequel would need to be green-lit before that discussion could take place.