#FanCastFriday: Rita Repulsa
By: Jatevin Murphy
Whats up everyone and welcome to another Fancast Friday. This weeks fancast is dedicated to none other than The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers specifically one of their villains….my favorite villain, Rita Repulsa. Since she appeared Rita Repulsa has been portrayed by a WOC from the Japanese actress Machiko Soga to Carla Perez. Most of us are familiar with the visual of Rita being played by her original Japanese actress Machiko Soga and having her voice dubbed over by american actress Barbra Goodson.
Earlier this year a new Power Rangers film was announced and it was also announced that Elizabeth Banks would be portraying Rita Repulsa. Some fans were happy with the casting considering Bank’s so famously played Effie Trinkett in The Hunger Games series, but me on the other hand and quite a few other nerds were NOT happy at all with the very clear and blatant white washing of yet another Asian character. When the first picture of Banks as Rita Repulsa was released it also garnered more negative responses as the character was not only white washed, but also bore no resemblance to the Rita Repulsa that we all know and loved. Everyone knew that with the reboot there would come a change in costumes and looks and most of us welcomed it and a lot of us responded positively to over changes. However as a huge Rita Repulsa fan, I can’t get behind what I feel is the erasure of an asian character and an iconic look.
So I’ve chosen one of my favorite actresses to play one of my favorite characters, none other than Joan Chen.
Some of you may know Joan from her role as Josie Packard from Twin Peaks and some of you like me may know her from the Netflix series Marco Polo in her role as the Empress Chabi wife of Kublai Khan. It is on Marco Polo that I first fell in love with Joan as an actress from her immense beauty and her scene stealing talent. Joan Chen is a fantastic actress that would’ve served the newest Power Rangers movie well and her casting would’ve been a breath of fresh air in Hollywood’s white washing atmosphere.
