After 10,000 years, I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth!!⚡️ Time to play #RitaRepulsa #PowerRangersMovie pic.twitter.com/ouzd2BtkUI
— Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) February 2, 2016
After the 5 unknowns they got to play the POWER RANGERS, I didn’t expect such an A-lister to sign on as the villain, but there you go. Elizabeth Banks is going to play Rita Repulsa in the upcoming reboot, and by gum, I’m sure she’ll be great. Rita, who actually originated as Witch Bandora on the original Japanese series KYORYU SNETAI ZYURANGER, was played by both Machiko Soga and Carla Perez in the original series, with Barbara Goodson providing her shrieking voice, and served as the villain until the badass looking Lord Zedd came on the scene and took over (until Rita fed him her love potion, that is).
Banks obviously has experience wearing the kind of silly shit Rita was known for, as well as eating that level of scenery amongst lesser-known young actors, but she’s never really used that incredible voice and presence of hers to play a villain. She’s obviously a highly-paid creative these days, and it’ll be a blast to see her throwing around her diva weight as the psychotic, ancient witch set on taking over the universe.
Remember, Paul Freeman (a.k.a. Rene Belloq) remains the highlight of POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE with his campy, thoroughly purple Ivan Ooze, and if the HUNGER GAMESes are any evidence, Banks is more than willing to go even further than he did.
This got me pretty excited to check out this POWER RANGERS re-do for myself, how about you?
Go Go, POWER RANGERS on March 24th, 2017.
