If you are familiar with Power Rangers at all, you'll remember Goldar. How could you not? He's one of the greatest villains in the show's history and arguably the most powerful foe the Rangers ever faced. He certainly had one of the cooler monster designs of the show.
Aside from Rita Repulsa, Goldar is the only character that appeared in every season within the Zordon Era (starting with the original pilot and ending with Power Rangers In Space's finale). Sadly, the character was always playing second fiddle; usually leadinb the Putty Patrol into battle against the Rangers.
Although Goldar looks extremely different in 2017's Power Rangers, the character looks to have a similar role as he did in the original show; all of the trailers show the villain as the "final boss" that fights the Megazord near the film's climax.
Believe it or not for a show created mostly from spliced-together Japanese footage, Power Rangers actually has a pretty deep lore! There is a lot about the show's characters that gets glanced over upon first watch, and Goldar is no exception.
We're diving deep into the Power Rangers franchise to bring you 15 Things You Didn't Know About Goldar!
15. He shares a voice actor with Deadpool
Say what you will about inconsistencies within the Power Rangers TV show, but the series has always been great about retaining its acting talent. Rita, Zedd, and Goldar all kept their same actors throughout the show; even when Rita returned as the Mystic Mother in Power Rangers Mystic Force eight years later, the character was played by the same actress. Kerrigan Mahan has played Goldar in every major adaptation of the show since its creation in the early '90s with one lone exception...
In 2007, Saban released the video game Power Rangers: Super Legends for the Playstation 2 and PC. The game featured Lord Zedd returning to his evil self and using the powers of an alternate dimension to travel through history and destroy the Power Rangers. The Omega Ranger, a time-traveling hero from the future, sets off on a quest to assemble a team of the greatest Rangers in history to stop the evil Emperor and his minions.
Super Legends saw voice actor Nolan North (famous for playing characters like Deadpool, Nathan Drake, and Desmond Miles) standing in for the voice of Goldar. It was... not very good. But then again, neither was the game!
14. His wings are symbolic
The topic of Goldar's wings has been one that Ranger fans have debated for decades. Are they a staple of the character? Or a symbol of when he finally lost his cool factor? Why were they so large yet almost never used?
In the early episodes of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the brutish villain had a small pair of wings that folded down behind him when he fought. Then, for whatever reason, they vanished. They returned at the beginning of season two with a new design (these wings extended out and were almost the same length as the character's body) and vanished once more at the beginning of Power Rangers Zeo.
The real answer to this enigma is simply that Goldar's Super Sentai counterpart had retractable wings that his Power Rangers footage never addressed. However, the writers tried to spin it by making the wings symbolic.
At the beginning of season two, one of the first things Lord Zedd does after kicking Rita to the curb is restore Goldar's wings. It is implied that Rita had taken them away as punishment for the character's repeated failures against the Rangers. This theory was all but confirmed when he lost his wings again at the beginning of Zeo.
One eagle-eyed fan noticed that as Zedd and Rita flee from the Machine Empire, one of their Tenga Warriors (those creepy bird things from MMPR: The Movie) is carrying Goldar's detached wings after his failure to destroy the Rangers (despite blowing up the Command Center).
13. His birthplace is Titan, one of Saturn's moons
Let's embrace our inner Billy here and get science-y. Titan is the largest of Saturn's many moons and the only one that has been proven to have any sort of liquid on its surface. Though the moon was discovered all the way back in 1665, its dense surface couldn't be explored fully until NASA sent a surface rover to Titan in 2004. For the entire time in between, the moon remained a mystery to the common man. Perhaps this is why (along with many of our solar system's other celestial bodies) the writers of Power Rangers liked to make its villains come from these uncharted territories.
Originally Goldar was said to have come from a distant planet called Dredwing, but the showrunners dropped it in favor of using Titan. It kind of makes sense; the original battle between Rita and Zordon took place ten thousand years ago, while humans were still developing their civilizations. When Rita and her minions were locked away, humans wouldn't have even noticed a giant intergalactic space battle going down in their solar system.
Goldar's armor is even called "Titanian Armor" in honor of his native birthplace.
12. His actor had to change the character's voice because it strained his vocal chords
If you are binge-watching Power Rangers in preparation for the new movie, you'll notice that something changes with Goldar about halfway through the first season. He starts off with a gruff, growling voice that was actually quite terrifying when you hear it as a small child. But then, about halfway through the show's initial season, Goldar's voice inexplicably changes to something more low-pitched and grumbly. They must have changed voice actors, right?
Wrong. Kerrigan Mahan played Goldar throughout the character's entire existence (minus that one game). So why did he change what was such a cool and intimidating voice? Apparently, doing Goldar's more high-pitched voice took its toll on the actor's vocal chords; while experimenting with different voices, he came up with the one that fans are the most familiar with.
However, the original sound bits can still be heard in later episodes, as the showrunners didn't bother to re-dub any recycled footage they used of the character.
11. There were three Goldar costumes used across the original show and movie
To a Power Rangers fan, there isn't much more iconic than Goldar's costume and creature design. He's got the long mane, the wolf-like snout, the menacing red eyes, and fangs that look like they could tear you apart if he wanted to. Then there's his gold-plated Titanian Armor, with a cool sword and a helmet that looks like a mix of Greek and Egyptian headwear. It looks like Goldar's design is finally getting a complete overhaul with the new movie this year, but the character's look stayed the same throughout his entire tenure on the show.
However, Goldar was given new duds on two separate occasions. During the initial season of Power Rangers, the audience could tell that something was off about the costume they used for Goldar. Whenever he talked in scenes that were filmed in America, his mouth could barely move. It's actually quite hilarious to go back and watch him talk while only moving his upper lip, and sometimes not moving his mouth at all.
He received a much-needed upgrade in the show's second season. Goldar now had more realistic skin, as well as longer fangs and wings. But most importantly his entire mouth could move!
Another suit was created for MMPR: The Movie. As you'd expect, this one was of much higher quality than the ones seen in the show, as it allowed the character's face to be more expressive and the actor inside to move more graciously.
10. He was assigned to serve Rita by Lord Zedd
It's hard to forget just how annoying Rita Repulsa was. As she walked around her moon base, plotting new ways to destroy the Power Rangers, her annoying screech would drown out anything her henchmen tried to say. She was a complete narcissist, as well; Rita would often hit her minions with her staff whenever they annoyed her and verbally abuse them when they failed to destroy the Rangers. It's not too hard to believe that Goldar (who considers himself to be the greatest warrior in the universe) didn't exactly see eye-to-eye with his Empress at all times.
But Goldar never really wanted to be with Rita at all. A big part of Goldar's character is his sniveling "mighty mouse" persona; he acts big and tough to impress his current boss but will throw them under the bus the second their rule is challenged. Throughout the first sixty episodes of the TV show, the henchman served Rita loyally. But when Lord Zedd finally returns to punish her for her failure, it is revealed that Goldar had never really wanted to be with the witch anyway. He had served Zedd long ago, before the master of evil had assigned him to Rita's team.
Goldar makes his hatred for Rita known as soon as he feels safe to do so. He tells her to "get over it" when she complains about her usual headache and agrees with Zedd when he exclaims that Rita "...isn't fit to destroy a cockroach!"
9. He's been on Broadway
Maybe we should have mentioned this as one of Goldar's costume changes... Eh, probably not. When a franchise becomes as big of a cash cow as Power Rangers, producers are going to milk it for all it's worth. Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Power Rangers got their own traveling stage show for all the kiddies to come out and see. And just like the TMNT show, it was awful.
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Live was your typical cash grab shlock. It was a non-canon story that involved aliens crash-landing in whatever city the show was playing in and then trying to learn Lord Zedd's evil ways. Naturally the Power Rangers appeared to save the day, complete with live music, horribly-choreographed fights, and costumes that looked like they came from Dollar Tree.
Surprisingly, this stage show was able to get all of the show's actors involved in its production. Kind of. The entire cast of the TV series recorded their lines and scenes for the stage show, but then different actors played all the characters on stage. This ploy was masked by the fact that every character who wasn't original to MMPR Live was in a full-body costume.
What can we even say about this version of Goldar? He looks like his head is two times too large for his body! At least he didn't have to sing...
8. He got funnier as the show went on
What would Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers be without its humor? As much as it pains our nostalgic minds to say, this is not a show that you can take seriously. They use the phrase "Morphenominal" and drive a flying Volkswagen Beetle for crying out loud!
Even so, most of the enemies that the Rangers went up against weren't played for laughs at all. Goldar was portrayed as a completely terrifying enemy in the pilot episode of the show and stayed that way for a long while. But as the show grew in popularity there was more pressure on the showrunners to make it more kid-friendly. This meant that characters that were normally meant to be feared, like Lord Zedd and Goldar, were reduced to comic relief roles within the show.
Luckily for fans, Goldar was actually became pretty hilarious as the show went on. The moment that sticks out the most is in a later season, when the villain and a bunch of Putties try to ambush Tommy and Kimberly. The Rangers morph, but the couple is still in the middle of a big fight. They stand there, in costume, bickering at each other while beating up Putties and while Goldar eggs them on. The fight between the two escalates as Goldar continues to try to get their attention; frustrated, he finally says "This is ridiculous!" and punches the Pink Ranger in the face.
Is this the same guy that used to scare us when he fought the Megazord?
7. His original character in Super Sentai was very different
Anyone who knows anything about Power Rangers can tell you that much of the footage is recycled from a similar TV show in Japan. In order to cut costs, Saban uses footage from Super Sentai as the basis for its costumes, Zords, and villains. Then they shoot scenes with American actors and splice the footage together to make a brand new show.
Don't be fooled: Power Rangers is not an adaptation of Sentai. The two shows always have radically different plots and storylines (often to the point of being unrecognizable to fans of the other show). For the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Saban used footage from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger.
The footage and costume used for Goldar was originally used for a character called Grifforzer, a mighty general in the witch Bandora's (Rita's) army. Grifforzer started off as a mute but was granted the ability to speak when his wife Lamy (Scorpina in Power Rangers) reconnects with Bandora and her henchmen after a centuries-long separation.
Despite making a powerful duo on the battlefield, Grifforzer and Lamy are constantly bickering, as he feels like the battlefield is no place for a woman. At the end of Zyuranger, Grifforzer and his wife are locked back in the magical urn that had held Bandora for thousands of years.
6. He holds a personal vendetta against Jason and Tommy
Goldar was a rare villain in the first few seasons of Power Rangers. Unlike the rest of the villains of the show, he was able to hold his own against the entire team of Rangers without breaking a sweat. Rita, Finster, Squat, and Baboo never once came to blows with the Power Rangers, and Lord Zedd only fought a single Ranger head-on in the entire series. Goldar, on the other hand, got his hands dirty in almost every episode.
Even though he was powerful enough to take on the Megazord and the whole team of Power Rangers on his own, the manticore-like villain often took on the Rangers one-on-one in order to take them out more easily. Over the course of the series, Goldar tried to single out and destroy Trini, Zach, Jason, and Tommy, all to no avail.
Since they were the leaders, Goldar tried to take out Jason and Tommy quite often. Like every couple of episodes. Alas, Tommy and Jason would consistently defeat or outsmart Goldar, leading the so-called greatest warrior in the universe to feel dishonored and foolish for being defeated by a mere human.
Because of this, the baddie holds a personal vendetta against these two. He always has a certain sadistic glee whenever one of the two is being put through the wringer.
5. In the new movie, he's literally made of gold
The new Power Rangers movie looks promising. But unsurprisingly, fans of the original show are torn. The filmmakers made some... interesting character design choices. The Zords appear to have designs ripped straight from the Transformers series, including a Mastodon that has six legs (that can also apparently shoot a web?) and a Pterodactyl that looks more like a jet than a dinosaur. Even the Rangers' costumes caused a fuss when they were first shown, simply because they looked more tactical and Iron Man-like than in the show.
The biggest source of controversy has come from the designs of the villains. Rita Repulsa is... not very repulsive. She looks absolutely nothing like the original character at all. Likewise, Goldar is nearly unrecognizable from the trailers and toys that we've seen so far. Instead of the awesome griffin/manticore-looking creature with armor that was in the original show, the character now appears to be a giant monster created out of liquid gold.
Fans were hoping that they were simply being shown images of Goldar in the process of growing, but later trailers show the Zords fighting the same creature with Zach commenting "That's a lot of gold." The leaked plot details from a few months ago seem to confirm this theory, as well. Despite our everlasting love of Power Rangers, this is one that we're still on the fence about.
4. He has a Zord of his own (Cyclopsis)
Goldar was always at the front and center of any of Rita and Zedd's invasions, leading monsters into battle and growing to gargantuan proportions to lure out the Megazord. After this tactic failed for the upteenth time, the Empress of Evil decided to try a different approach; she revived her own ancient War Zord, Cyclopsis, and instructed Goldar to pilot it against the Power Rangers. Unlike many of the other creatures or robots seen in the show, Cyclopsis was actually more than a match for our heroes.
The Zord only showed up as part of a two-part story in season one, but it left a big impression on fans. Cyclopsis was able to successfully defeat both the Megazord and the Dragonzord at the same time! Zordon got the upper hand on Goldar by playing his trump card of Titanus the Carrier Zord.
In the very next episode, an upgraded Cyclopsis returned and did even more damage to the Ranger's mechs. The team was only able to defeat this weapon when Alpha 5 discovered that it had to readjust its programming every time it encountered a new opponent. The Power Rangers kept switching between different modes with their Zords until Cyclopsis' systems overloaded.
3. He tried to break up Rita and Zedd's marriage
When the show started to get more kid friendly, the showrunners of Power Rangers decided that they had been too harsh on Rita. This led to her return at the beginning of season three, where she asked her loyal servant Finster to grow her back to normal size and to create a love potion in order to woo Lord Zedd. The two then became the power couple of the series with a chemistry that almost reminded us of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Even after the two characters were purified by Zordon's beam of good energy, they remained a couple.
Goldar looked up to Lord Zedd and absolutely despised Rita, so this development was horrifying to me. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea that Zedd, the embodiment of evil, could have been so weak as to fall in love. Even at the pair's wedding Goldar is seen in the background muttering "no, no!" and covering his eyes. After much investigation into the topic, the villain discovered that Finster was responsible and forced him to create an antidote to the love potion. Goldar gave it to Zedd but was even more horrified to learn that his master had fallen in love with Rita completely independent of the charm.
2. He was forced to kill his brother
If you haven't been keeping up with the Boom! Studios Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers comic series, you need to. It takes the characters and elements of the original show that we loved, removes their campiness, and uses them to tell some cool stories set within the MMPR universe.
The first story arc was about a newly-converted Tommy trying to find his place on the Power Rangers while still trying to fight the effects of Rita's Green Ranger spell. Currently the Rangers are trapped in a dystopian alternate timeline where the Green Ranger and Rita were able to destroy the Power Rangers and take over the world.
Sadly, Goldar has been lacking in this adaption of the Rangers. In the main story, he appears only once, in exile for failing Rita one time too many. However, the character has been featured in a few of the one-off stories written by the publisher.
The most memorable of these tales was entitled "Only the Strong" and appeared in MMPR Annual #1. In this story, we find out that Goldar once had a brother named Silverback, who was much more assertive and power hungry. At one point, while the brothers were both serving Lord Zedd, Silverback claimed that their leader was weak and unfit. He tries to overthrow the Emperor, but Zedd is much too powerful; he gravely wounds Silverback and then instructs Goldar to execute his brother using his own sword. Being the spineless kiss-up that he is, Goldar complies without much hesitation.
1. His fate in the original series is still unknown
"Countdown to Destruction" is arguably the greatest episode of Power Rangers ever. After five seasons of build up across four different Ranger teams, it finally gave us a satisfying conclusion to the Zordon Era. This Power Rangers in Space episode was originally meant to act as the series finale of the show (who had suffered poor ratings from Turbo and the early episodes of In Space) before the ratings returned to the MMPR levels during its final days.
The climax of the episode shows Zordon sacrificing himself and all of the evil in the world is destroyed; Humanoid enemies like Rita, Zedd, Divatox, and Astronema are all turned into "good" humans while their monstrous henchmen are reduced to dust. But we still don't know what happened to Goldar! He's shown in the episode leading the attack against the Gold Ranger, but he's nowhere to be found when the dust settles at the end of the episode.
Did he get disintegrated? Goldar is kind of humanoid... did he get turned into a "good" human like Rita and Zedd? It's safe to assume that he was disintegrated with the rest of the monsters, but this is a kids' superhero show. And you know the rule with the superhero genre: if you don't see them die, then they're not really dead! We'd like to think that Goldar is still out there, flying around the galaxy while making egotistical comments about how awesome he is...
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Are you excited to see Goldar return to the big screen in Power Rangers? Did you know all these little factoids on our list? Let us know in the comments!