This Friday, Power Rangers, AKA everyone’s favourite ‘90s TV show, is hitting the cinemas as a fully-fledged film. It promises all your classic morphin’ thrills and more. But, this isn’t the only breaking PR news that’s been hitting the headlines this week. In an absurd turn of events, there have been four very different, yet interlinked Power bulletins, each scooping one another. This Ranger quartet has spread across every newspaper’s intelligence arm, from the fashion cupboard to the courtroom, and, come Friday, the cinema.
1. Ricardo Medina
Four days ago the actor Ricardo Medina, who’s best known for playing the Red Ranger in the early 2000s show, pleaded guilty to killing his roommate…with a samurai sword. You couldn’t make this up. It’s been reported that Medina and the victim, Josh Sutter, had an argument over where the ex-PR’s girlfriend’s car was parked. Things turned violent, he grabbed a sword, stabbed several times and almost instantly called 911. But, the deed was done, and he was pronounced dead. Medina has claimed it was self-defence, but he’s now facing six years in prison, which is still a lot less than his original conviction that carried a 26-year sentence.
2. Then Gigi Hadid Pulled A Left Field Fashion Move
A cynic would say this is some smart product placement just in time to bring hype to the box office, but we’re open to other interpretations. The Cali model stepped out on Monday in NYC in a Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers top. The vibe: playground circa 1998. The effect: extreme nostalgia.
3. Next came the good news
Following in the footsteps of Sesame Street who announced this week they are introducing a character with Autism, the Rangers did the same. The upcoming film directed by Dean Israelite will prominently feature a character on the Autistic Spectrum. RJ Cyler, who stars as the Blue Ranger, told ScreenRant: ‘I just wanted to show a different…viewpoint of people that are seen as being on the spectrum… Or people diagnosed with Autism, ’cause it’s like I feel like us being outsiders looking in and I take that, I cast my own stone when I say that, ’cause there’s a lot that I didn’t know before.'
4. And then, the final news blast...
Continuing the goodwill of RJ Cyler’s scoop, the Power Rangers team announced that, just like Beauty & the Beast, the upcoming film would feature an LGBT character. This community, which is woefully underrepresented in cinema and often maligned in their representation, will be represented by Trini, the Yellow Ranger, played by Becky G in the forthcoming release.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.