Update on the Red Samurai Ranger

August 10, 2010

In May 2010, we wrote about casting for the 18th season of Power Rangers and how Nickelodeon restricted the lead role in Power Rangers to white actors only–despite the franchise’s past history of diversity and ‘colorblind’ casting.

Racebending.com wrote Nickelodeon’s CEO Jeff Dunn via email asking that he re-release the casting breakdown and give actors of color a fair and equal chance to audition for the lead role. We didn’t get a response. (Sorry folks!) Edit: But the casting call was changed! See below!

Our concern wasn’t that the Power Rangers weren’t going to be diverse–the show has always been diverse. What we were concerned about was that actors of color were not given a fair and equal chance to try out to be the Red Samurai Ranger–the lead role–for Nickelodeon’s first season of the show. For whatever reason, Nickelodeon didn’t specify the ethnicity of the supporting Rangers, but their leader had to be white.

Racebending.com facebook user Austin B. posted a mash up photo (see below) and a heads up on our Facebook page. According to and RangerBoard.com, Alex Hartman has been cast in the role of the Red Samurai Ranger.

A really diverse cast, but, behind the scenes, a glass ceiling. Your mileage may vary.

EDIT: Good news! Foxtree reports that the casting breakdown was updated after we sent the letter to Nickelodeon. (No idea or any way to determine if we were the reason why or not.) Here’s the breakdown below:

Categories: Power Rangers

About the Author

Marissa Lee is one of the co-founders of Racebending.com

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Lsrms3977

Another problem is, the female Power Rangers are only restricted to being 5’6″ and under these days. There’s hardly female Power Rangers characters that are over 5’7″. In other words, there’s a lot of height restrictions when it comes to female and even male Power Rangers. In addition to that, there’s also a lack of Middle Eastern, East Indian, and Mediterranean European (like Italian, Greek, or French, for example) characters as well as characters who are immigrants or exchange students from other countries or those who speak a second language or beyond.
- Jon
  
  I more think of Time Force as the low point. The bad guys are criminals who escaped from a eugenic utopia, and the good guys are the eugenic utopia. I can’t help but shake my head at “eugenic utopia”.
Jon

There hasn’t been an Indian since Tommy. Granted, it’s Tommy, but still…

Of course, Tommy, who has been sixth, red, and mentor, is something, but, the second most popular Power Ranger was played by Johnny Yong Bosch.
litzy

samurai togrther rangers forever!!!!

From
Litzy Rodriguez
http://twitter.com/NathanJCole Nathan Cole

1) the last series had a black leader (also that series was MUCH better than this one)

2) If you have three (out of six) non-white characters you’re more diverse than the American average, and two is more diverse than the average for New Zealand
cameran

really i love that mean power ranger samurai all have samurai.

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