Rita Repulsa is a classic Power Rangers villain who those who watched the first few seasons of the original show will no doubt remember. She's pretty hard to forget.
Her cackling laugh, massive headpiece and affinity for crawling out of manholes on the moon made her quite the larger-than-life character. She was also responsible for "growing" the various giant monsters against which the Power Rangers had to face off.
This version of Rita Repulsa, played by Elizabeth Banks, looks to be something else entirely. Just revealed by Entertainment Weekly, this is what the villain will look like in the upcoming Mighty Morphin Power Rangers reboot.
In short, she basically looks like an entirely different character. Gone is the massive headdress and the large collar. Instead, this new Rita is decked out in revealing green and gold armor that makes her look more like Loki than her character's namesake. She also now sports a green nylon cord around her neck and has gold finger claws. Even her hair is green!
"It's definitely a modern and edgy reimagining of the original Rita Repulsa," Banks says. She goes on to say that the film creators wanted to give Rita a backstory that connected her to the new Power Rangers. At least Banks is enthusiastic about the role, saying she's looking forward to world domination. It's still unknown what Rita's new powers will be, but we can only hope that she will continue to spawn massive creatures for the Power Rangers to battle.
However, if this is the film's idea of "modern and edgy" remake for Rita, it should be interesting (or terrifying) to see what the film's new Power Ranger suits look like. If Rita's backstory and look are somehow connected to that of the new origin for the Power Rangers, their costumes could share some of the same design sensibilities.
We can only hope the Power Rangers reboot looks half as cool as the concept art from this scrapped film pitch, but we don't have high hopes, from what we've seen about the project so far.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is scheduled for a 2017 release.
