Elizabeth Banks has, for many years, been one of our funniest and most underrated actresses. And yet somehow, despite her superstar good looks and obvious talent in front of the camera, it took a trip behind the camera to make her an A-lister. Ever since she directed the runaway smash hit Pitch Perfect 2 last year she’s probably been able to pick and choose her projects, and she chose… to be repulsive.
Banks will co-star in the upcoming Power Rangers movie reboot as Rita Repulsa, the arch-nemesis of the teenaged superheroes who lived on the moon and summoned wacky monsters to destroy humanity. Fortunately, color-coded good guys summoned their robots and formed bigger robots and punched her minions into oblivion, week after week. Eventually Rita married Lord Zed, another Might Morphin’ Power Rangers villain, and boy howdy, would we much rather have seen a sitcom about that relationship than whatever the heck the so-called “ninja force” was up to on any given week.
Also: Read the First Six Pages of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #0
Elizabeth Banks is no stranger to funky get-ups, after wearing a seemingly endless parade of over-the-top costumes throughout the Hunger Games movies. So if anyone can rock Rita Repulsa’s absurd headgear, it’s her. But more importantly, Elizabeth Banks is completely willing to make a fool out of herself for the sake of a good gag, so casting her as the shrieking, ridiculous supervillain Rita Repulsa makes perfect sense to us.
Power Rangers, directed by Dean Israelite (Project Almanac), will co-star Naomi Scott (The Martian), RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Becky G. (Empire), Dacre Montgomery (A Few Less Men) and Ludi Lin (Monster Hunt) as the title heroes. The big budget reboot is scheduled morph its way into theaters on March 24, 2017.
Top Photo: Jon Kopaloff / FilmMagic
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
