Why An Original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Star Had To Fight For His Job In The First Movie

There's a certain amount of cognitive dissonance underlying the production of Bryan Spicer's 1995 kids flick "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie." Thanks to the popularity of their TV series, the Power Rangers had become a pop phenomenon, grabbing the majority of eyeballs within a very specific age group. To remind readers, the original "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" TV series re-used a lot of footage from the Japanese tokusatsu series "Super Sentai," intercutting it with new material featuring American actors (some of whom even reunited decades later for 2023's "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always"). It was cheap to film, quick to produce, and it made boatloads of cash.

"Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie" also borrowed footage from "Super Sentai," but it contained more original footage than its parent show. A whole new script was written, complete with a new villain named Ivan Ooze (Paul Freeman). Meanwhile, the original show's main villains, Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, were relegated to supporting roles. To re-capture the show's unique "dubbed" aesthetic, Rita was played by Julia Cortez but voiced by Barbara Goodson. Lord Zedd was physically played by stunt performer Mark Ginther and voiced by the late Robert Axelrod.

The cognitive dissonance comes when one compares how much money the "Power Rangers" franchise was raking in versus how much its producers were willing to spend on the movie. It seems that even if it was a surefire hit, the film's creatives cut corners as much as they could. Indeed, back in 2005, Axelrod spoke to the website Kaiju-Fan Online (archived by the Vantage Point Interviews website), and he revealed that he was almost cut from the movie in favor of a cheaper voice actor. He had to appeal to the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" head honchos to keep his job.

The actual budget of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie" remains off the books, although it may've cost roughtly a seventh of the big-budget 2017 "Power Rangers" film reboot. If that still seems high for a movie that re-uses old TV footage, know that a great bulk of the film is original material. Indeed, the Lord Zedd character's scenes are largely original, which meant more work for Axelrod.

But, as he recalled, the film's backers hired, in his words, "some dingy broad named Suzanne to produce the thing." He described her as "a grade-A bastard" and noted, "Her whole scene was to save Fox a nickel here, a dime there." He's referring to Suzanne Todd, a successful Hollywood player with an extensive career. Axelrod also remembered that Todd wanted to replace him and other returning "Power Rangers" voice actors with performers who'd cost less money. He needed someone up at the top to intervene in Todd's plans. As he recalled:

"I don't remember who wrote the script. [...] When it came to doing the voices, the work was to be done here in L.A. [Todd] wanted to replace us with cheaper talent. Friends of mine actually auditioned for Lord Zedd. It was only via the intervention of Haim Saban that we were finally hired. We had to work non-union. It was not pleasant. Even the work was unpleasant, as I recall. Though we made decent money, I felt we were still dreadfully underpaid because there were no residuals involved."

Haim Saban is, of course, the founder and executive producer of Saban Entertainment, itself a kid-entertainment powerhouse in the 1980s and '90s. With Saban stepping in, Axelrod's gig was saved. It wasn't much, but he got to keep his job.

Axelrod explained elsewhere in the same interview that he petitioned hard to get the role of Lord Zedd. He knew that "Power Rangers" would be lucrative for any actors involved, and he ached to get the job. Initially, he said, another actor was hired for the part, but he kept on bugging one of the show's producers, who happened to be a friend of his. Axelrod said he even developed a cool "villain" voice many months before he was granted an audition. It was, by his description, a "husky Marlboro-laden voice." He eventually got the gig and played Zedd across many, many episodes of the series.

Axelrod loved the character, largely because he had so much dialogue. As he put it:

"Zedd had integrity, a word whose dictionary definition is 'wholeness.' He was wholly evil, intent on destroying 'The Power Twerps' and taking over the world ... or at least Angel City. I liked the stately quality of the character, similar to Darth Vader. He wasn't stupid and always bounced back for more. 'Power Rangers' became the most popular show on TV in the past 20 years in its prime, surpassing 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' in ratings, toy demand, and whatever else is used to rate the popularity of a show. I'm proud to have been part of that." 

Axelrod passed away in 2019 at the age of 70, due to complications from spinal surgery. He has hundreds of credits to his name and kept on working up until his death. He dubbed many, many voices in American releases of popular anime shows, but he also played himself in the 2012 surrealist comedy "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie." He was beloved by children everywhere, and he is deeply missed.