Power Rangers: Trini Was Supposed To Return

The original Yellow Power Ranger was going to make a cameo before the new generation of Rangers took over.

Power Rangers is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary with a Netflix special that will not only pay tribute to the beginning of the franchise, but also its original cast members who are no longer with us. Thuy Trang, who played original Yellow Ranger Trini, passed away in 2001 and its reported the Netflix special, titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always will be a tribute to her (along with original Green Ranger Jason David Frank, who passed away in 2022.)

Trang had left the show in 1994 and never returned, so Once & Always will be the first time since the shows second season that Trini’s character will be directly addressed. It wasn’t the first attempt to do so, though. There was a plan for Trini to return.

“Passing of the Torch Part 2” was the end of an era for Power Rangers. Taking place in the series’ fifth season, Power Rangers Turbo (which aired in 1997 on Fox Kids), it featured the biggest cast change yet. Previous seasons had only switched out one to three Rangers at time but now it was finally decided for a whole new team to be brought on. The final remaining member of the classic Mighty Morphin team, Tommy, left the series along with three other Rangers (Adam, Tanya, and Katherine) who had all been around for at least a season and a half. 

“Passing of the Torch” established the new team of Rangers along with recent addition Justin and the end of the episode featuring a big ceremony where the old Rangers passed on their powers to the new team. It was a moment that changed what the franchise was. No longer would characters/actors stick around for years and years. It was now a revolving cast and it’s a moment longtime fans remember well.

It was almost an even bigger moment. Thanks to an early draft of the episode we learned that Trini was going to make a cameo just as the next generation of Rangers was taking over. In the script she’s mostly there to offer support to the departing veteran Rangers and only has two lines, which you can read below.

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Power Rangers Script

Trini: We’re here to support you and take pride in what we all have accomplished as a team.

Tommy: It’s great to see you guys, all of you.

Trini: When you took over as Rangers, we all knew the power was in good hands.

Zordon: And you in turn have chosen yoru successors well. They shall carry the Power Ranger name with honor.

But wait, who’s the “we” Trini refers to? According to the stage directions Trini would have been joined by every other former Ranger, though they would have been played by body doubles. The script specifically notes this, “Billy, Kimberly, Aisha, Zack, Rocky and Jason appear (all but Trini are doubles).”

It’s easy to reason that Thuy Trang had at least been in talks to make a cameo but it sadly fell through for one reason or another.

The finished episode only featured the then current cast and new cast, so the entire idea of returning old Rangers was scrapped. While it would have been nice to see Trini the idea of body doubles for the rest of the team seems ill conceived. Can you imagine another instance of Jason and Zack being played by doubles after the same was done when they left the series during the middle of Season 2?

Still, this is a fascinating look into what might have been for the original generation of Power Rangers. If you’re into this kind of thing we also did an in-depth analysis of several unproduced Power Rangers episode as well.

Stay tuned for more information on the 30th anniversary of Power Rangers.

Thanks to Project Hexagon: The Power Rangers Script Archive for scans of the script pieces included here.

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