Next year’s Power Rangers movie has a hard road to punch, kick, and flip its way down in terms of actor recognition. While director Dean Israelite has secured some ringers—namely Elizabeth Banks, Bryan Cranston, and Bill Hader—to shore up his supporting cast, he’s also got five young mighty morphin’ leads who are all relatively unknown to the American movie-going public.
Hence, presumably, the focus of today’s teaser trailer, which dials in pretty heavily on Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Kimberly (Terra Nova’s Naomi Scott), and Billy (RJ Cyler, probably the best known Ranger thanks to Me And Earl And The Dying Girl) as they form a sort of knock-off Breakfast Club at Angel Grove High. A Johnny Cash cover—following the “if it’s slowed down, it’s more dramatic” school of movie trailer scoring—plays as the trio deal with their various bullies, mean girls, and disapproving dads. All that changes, though, when they hook up with Becky G’s Trini and Ludi Lin’s Zack, and discover some magical artifacts hidden in a canyon wall.
From there, the trailer switches over into Standard Superhero Origin mode, complete with Cyler giving his best Peter Parker as a nerd who realizes he’s suddenly got super powers. After a few more riffs on Spider-Man (and The Matrix), the trailer ends on our first glimpse of Banks’ Rita Repulsa, who’s definitely not the cackling buffoon we remember from the original show. Meanwhile, there’s no sign of Hader’s Alpha 5 or Cranston’s Zordon; we’ll likely see more of them as the movie’s March 24 release date approaches.