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Bryan Cranston cast as Zordon in ‘Power Rangers’ movie

Bryan Cranston will play Zordon in the upcoming "Power Rangers" movie.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Bryan Cranston is headed back to the “Power Rangers” franchise. The actor has been cast to play Zordon in the upcoming Lionsgate reboot.

Before Cranston was making meth with friends on “Breaking Bad,” he previously found voice work on the air-punching, alien-fighting “Power Rangers” series.

Cranston previously revealed that not only did he lend his voice to the original “Power Rangers” TV series, but Blue Ranger’s name (Billy Cranston) was named after him. Cranston even teased the connection in his tweet confirming his new role.

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And now he will return in the live-action “Power Rangers” movie as Zordon, the recruiter and mentor to the titular heroes. Zordon is the one who knows about the threat of Rita Repulsa (who will be played in the film by Elizabeth Banks). Zordon guides the chosen teenagers while they train and learn to become even better Power Rangers (with the help of his robot assistant, at least in the original TV series).

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In the ’90s TV show Zordon appeared as a floating holographic head within the Power Rangers’ command center. This was because evil space witch Rita Repulsa had trapped Zordon in a time warp during their clash thousands of years before the events of the show. Fingers crossed, Cranston’s head will deliver the same, delightful shtick.

But the new version will be updated tremendously; previously released images reveal that both the Rangers and Rita have gone through pretty radical transformations, so there’s no predicting how the new Zordon will look.

Directed by Dean Israelite, “Power Rangers” stars Dacre Montgomery, Becky G, RJ Cyler, Naomi Scott and Ludi Lin as the eponymous heroes as well as Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa. The film is slated to hit theaters March 24, 2017.

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tracy.brown@latimes.com

Twitter: @tracycbrown

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