The original Blue Power Ranger isn’t a fan of his character’s namesake.
[dropcap size=small]M[/dropcap]any fans were delighted to learn that Bryan Cranston has been cast as Zordon in the upcoming Power Rangers reboot.
The Breaking Bad star has previous voice acting credits on the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, in which he voiced a few monsters such as Snizard and Twinman. Evidently Cranston made quite the impression on the shows creators, and even became the namesake of the original Blue Power Ranger, Billy Cranston.
But, as it turns out, the actor behind the original blue suit is not too pleased about Cranston’s involvement in the reboot.
David Yost, who played Billy in the original series, recently took to Twitter to express his displeasure at the casting of Cranston.
In the tweet – which has since been removed – Yost stated that the casting choice was “not cool”, and called out Cranston for being a “Homophobe” for using the term “fey” in an interview with IGN back in 2009:
“Not cool. I’m not a fan of homophobes https://t.co/QfJ5O60ay0 last page last line. Fey/gay = a problem” https://t.co/qVHwILjNVV
In the interview, Cranston mostly spoke about Breaking Bad, but as it came to a close, he was asked about his work on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – wherein he used the term Yost cites:
Cranston: They actually named one of the Power Rangers after me.
Gilligan: Yeah?!
Cranston: The Blue Power Ranger’s last name is Cranston.
IGN: [Laughs] Wow, that’s pretty funny.
Gilligan: That’s an awesome story!
Cranston: He’s the fey one, that’s the problem.
Yost opened up about the ill treatment and ‘vile homophobic abuse’ he received on the set of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on account of his sexuality back in 2010, which eventually led to his departure from the show in 1996.
Given the terrible personal experiences Yost has had whilst portraying Billy, it’s understandable that he would take Cranston’s words to heart.
However, it seems as though Cranston made a silly, poorly worded off-hand joke, and since the term fey appears to have multiple meanings, it probably wasn’t intended to be interpreted in this way – most especially since Cranston has been a very vocal advocate for same-sex marriage in recent years.
The Power Rangers reboot is due to hit the big screens 24 March, 2017.
