The POWER RANGERS Film will Feature the First Openly Gay Superhero
I'm sure you've noticed by now that Hollywood seems to have a new trend of taking characters from original popular properties and reimagining them as gay characters when they reboot or remake these properties.
This happened with Sulu in Star Trek Beyond, it recently happened with LeFou in Beauty and the Beast, and now it's just been announced that one of the Power Rangers will the upcoming film will be gay. This will be the first big superhero movie to feature an LGBT hero.
I imagine some people might consider the reveal of this character a spoiler, so I'm throwing up a spoiler warning just in case. Then we'll get into the meat of the story.
The big reveal comes in the second act of the Power Rangers movie in which the team learns that the Yellow Ranger Trini (Becky G) "is coming to terms with her sexual orientation, with one character assuming she's having 'boyfriend problems,' and soon realizing that perhaps she's actually having 'girlfriend problems.'"
It's explained that this is a very small moment in the film, but according to director Dean Israelite, it's a pivotal moment for the entire story. In an interview with THR, he explains:
"For Trini, really she's questioning a lot about who she is. She hasn't fully figured it out yet. I think what's great about that scene and what that scene propels for the rest of the movie is, 'That's OK.' The movie is saying, 'That's OK,' and all of the kids have to own who they are and find their tribe."
David Yost, the actor who played the original Blue Ranger, praised the decision:
"They really stepped up to the plate. I think so many people in the LGBTQI community are going to be excited to see that representation.”
For those of you who don't know, Yost is gay and ended up leaving the Power Rangers series in the '90s after facing harassment over his sexual orientation.
I know a lot of people have their own opinions on how they feel about these kinds of changes, but this is definitely a movement in Hollywood that is going to keep pressing forward as a way to share messages about tolerance.