The late Jason David Frank is synonymous with the Power Rangers. As Tommy Oliver, he became a central part of the lore and the face of the franchise. In the mid-’90s, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers received a shake-up as a few of the original Ranger actors departed the show and new faces joined the team. It was Morphin Time for Johnny Yong Bosch, who played Adam Park, the new Black Ranger. Later in his career, Bosch would go on to voice Dante in Netflix’s Devil May Cry series.
Decades after joining the show, Bosch confirmed a rumor that he was eyed to replace Frank as the next face of the franchise. Appearing on Harry Resilient’s YouTube channel, Bosch was asked if it was true that Adam was being set up to become the new leader of the Rangers after Tommy and that’s why he grew out his hair. “Yeah, so there is truth to that,” Bosch said. “Well, at least I was told that by a couple people.”
Bosch revealed a funny story of how he got into trouble after cutting his hair without permission, so he thought that it was a type of “punishment” that he was made to grow it out. However, he soon discovered there was another reason at play here.
“I was told that they wanted me to grow it out because Jason was thinking about leaving and they thought some young kids would be fooled into thinking, ‘Oh, this other long-haired guy is the same guy,'” Bosch explained.
“I thought that was silly until I went to Mexico on a tree-planting and house-building thing and all the kids there were Power Ranger fans. When they saw me with my long hair, they were shouting, ‘Tommy! Tommy!’ So, I was like, ‘Oh, dang. Maybe they’re right. It will fool kids.’ [Laughs]. So, yeah, I was told that they were considering it. I was brought in to Shuki [Levy, Power Rangers co-creator] and he said, ‘I have big plans for you.’ But, you know, those plans went away.”
It’s been well-publicized that there were pay disputes between the Ranger actors and the powers-that-be, hence why Austin St. John, Walter Emanuel Jones, and Thuy Trang left the cast in the first place, opening up the door for newcomers like Bosch. In terms of Frank, he had his contractual issues at various points too; however, in this case, they were resolved before the trigger was pulled on Bosch becoming the new leader of the Power Rangers. It’s an interesting prospect to consider, since it would have likely changed the entire trajectory of the franchise and Frank’s place in its history.
Bosch was meant to appear in Frank’s final film, Legend of the White Dragon – which is positioned as a more mature version of the Power Rangers without the IP and characters – but the appearance didn’t work out. Frank would pass away in November 2022.
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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is streaming on Netflix, along with the 1995 feature film and the 2023 reunion special Power Rangers: Once & Always.
