Power Rangers: Bryan Cranston says new film isn't like the TV series

Bryan Cranston is playing Zordon in the upcoming Power Rangers movie, but he was hesitant at first thanks to the original television series’ “farcical and silly” tone, he told the Huffington Post. Then he realized this movie won’t be like the series — not at all.

“This is as different a reimagining as the Batman television series as it became the Batman movie series,” he said, referring to The Dark Knight trilogy. “You can’t compare those two, and nor can you compare the movie version of the Power Rangers to that television series. It’s unrecognizable for the most part.”

That goes for the costumes, too: EW previously debuted the titular characters’ new outfits, which are free of the trademark spandex and more closely resemble armor.

“It’s tricky finding a new language for a superhero costume,” production designer Andrew Menzies told EW. “Ours is an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans.”

But the costumes still have hints of the old Power Rangers’ suits, and Cranston said that the movie itself also throws back to the original. “There are tenets of the folklore that you hold onto, for sure,” the Breaking Bad star and Emmy winner said. “But the inspiration is different, and the sensibility of it, and the approach to the filmmaking is completely different.”

See what Cranston means when Power Rangers — also starring Dacre Montgomery, Becky G, Ludi Lin, Naomi Scott, and RJ Cyler — arrives in theaters March 24, 2017, and check out a first look here.