Yahoo Sports Netflix's Power Rangers reunion special honors Yellow and Green Ranger actors with song by Amy Jo Johnson
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always.
The Power Rangers 30th anniversary special was always intended to be a tribute to original Yellow Ranger Trini actress Thuy Trang, who died in 2001. But after the tragic death of original Green Ranger Tommy actor Jason David Frank in 2022, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always had to find a way to honor both late actors.
The Netflix special (now streaming) centers on original Blue Ranger Billy (David Yost) and original Black Ranger Zack (Walter Emmanuel Jones) teaming up with other past rangers to battle a robot version of Rita Repulsa (voice actor Barbara Goodson), who kills Trini in the opening scene of Once & Always.
In real life, Trang died at 27 after a car accident. In the anniversary special, Trini's daughter Minh (Charlie Kersh) aims to take on the mantle of the Yellow Ranger and continue her mother's legacy — the entire plot centers around honoring Trini and Trang.
Everett Collection (2) Thuy Trang as Trini; Jason David Frank as Tommy
Frank's passing is not addressed during the scripted part of Once & Always. The actor's death by suicide at age 49 came after filming of the special was complete, but Frank had declined to participate. His character, Tommy, is seen in the Green Ranger suit and helmet but spends most of the story miniaturized and frozen by one of Rita's monsters. The special ends with "Dr. Tommy" returning to live with his wife, Kat (the second Pink Ranger, played by Catherine Sutherland), and their son J.J.
But the final moments of the special — showing Billy and Zack sitting at an Angel Grove Youth Center table, regaling Minh with stories about her mom — transition into footage from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 2, episode 11, "The Song of Guitardo."
The episode saw Tommy depleted of his Green Ranger powers after using them to fight Rita and Lord Zedd's forces, and ended with Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) and Zack serenading Tommy and commemorating the end of that chapter in his life. (Don't worry, he was soon given White Ranger powers.)
The song, "Down the Road", was reportedly written by Johnson (who declined to participate in the special but is working on a Power Rangers comic book to commemorate the 30th anniversary). And the lyrics serve as an eerily prescient coda to Once & Always.
"Memories will never die / In our hearts / they'll always live / and never say / goodbye," they sing before photos of their former costars appear with "In loving memory of Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank" below.
Everett Collection; Michael Buckner/Deadline/Penske Media via Getty Images Thuy Trang; Jason David Frank
"I think it was very poignant," Jones tells EW of including the song in the special. "In that [season 2] episode, we were saying goodbye to Tommy, and it was a moment that we were all sharing. And to be able to take that piece of history and apply it to current day history.... I was happy that we had that as a way to say goodbye in a most honorable way — and to get to share our grief."
"It was really difficult for me to watch it and to think about it and have the realization that both Jason and Thuy are gone," Yost adds of seeing the final version of the tribute. "As a cast, we were like brothers and sisters, we all got along. You know, we would fight every now and then, but we were a team and a family. I'm just so glad we got to honor Thuy and David in this way."
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