The Power Rangers anniversary special Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always confirms what happened to Trini, the original Yellow Ranger. Thuy Trang, who played Trini in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, passed away in 2001 after a tragic car accident. As the first Mighty Morphin-related Power Rangers content for TV since the original show, Once & Always had the chance to pay homage to Trang and her iconic Power Rangers character.
One of the five teenagers with attitude picked by Zordon to become Power Rangers, Trini Kwan remained on the team until Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 2’s “Power Transfer”. Trini, Zack, and Jason left the team for a peace conference following their respective actors’ exits from the series, an event that the Power Rangers comics would retcon decades later. Power Rangers had never revealed whether Trang’s character Trini had died in-universe, though an episode of Power Rangers Time Force that aired after her death was dedicated to her.
Power Rangers’ Rita Repulsa Killed Trini
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always trailer revealed that Rita Repulsa killed Trini before the special even became available to stream on Netflix. Following Thuy Trang’s tragic passing in 2001, no Power Rangers TV show ever revisited Trini as a character, leaving the fate of the original Yellow Ranger open. The BOOM! Power Rangers comics expanded on what happened to Trini after the character exited Zordon’s Rangers team, revealing that she, Zack, and Jason became the Omega Rangers. Still, those Power Rangers comics were all set in the Mighty Morphin era and, arguably, exist in a different timeline than the television series.
The Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger did return to Power Rangers TV shows twice after the original series, although the character never removed her helmet. As such, in moments like Power Rangers Super Megaforce’s Legendary Battle, it was difficult to say whether the Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger was Trini or Aisha (Karan Ashley). In fact, given that Rangers were being pulled from multiple timelines within the Power Rangers universe, nothing in that crossover was a definitive canon answer. Now, Power Rangers makes it clear that Yellow Power Ranger Trini remained alive three decades after Mighty Morphin, and is killed by Rita Repulsa in the Once & Always Power Rangers special.
What Happened In The Power Rangers Reunion
The opening moments of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always saw the original six Power Rangers team up to fight a familiar villain. Rita Repulsa (again voiced by Barbara Goodson) might technically be gone, but her evil essence that was once scattered across the galaxy found a home in a robotic form and returned to Angel Grove for revenge against the Power Rangers. She used two new versions of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1 monsters, the Mighty Minotaur and Snizzard, to battle the Rangers.
It’s in that initial battle that Rita was able to channel enough evil energy to use her magical staff to aim a killing shot at a Power Ranger. She was aiming for Blue Ranger Billy (David Yost), but Trini jumped to intercept it, losing her life to Rita Repulsa, a first in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers arm of the TV franchise. Billy and Zack (Walter Emmanuel Jones) argued about even telling Trini’s daughter the truth about her mother, and Billy carried the weight of what happened through the entire special. The events of the anniversary special then pick up one year later with Rita still setting monsters loose on the world and Trini’s daughter Minh (Charlie Kersh) wanting to be a Power Ranger like her mother.
The bulk of the special, which is less than 60 minutes long (like three episodes of the original Power Rangers series), focused on the remaining Power Rangers taking Rita out. Because Jason David Frank, Amy Jo Johnson, and Austin St. John did not participate in the special, their characters never remove their helmets and end up captured by Rita Repulsa, paving the way for Catherine Sutherland and Steve Cardenas to reprise their Power Ranger roles as Kat and Rocky, respectively.
Once & Always Is A Bittersweet Power Rangers Reunion
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always was envisioned not only as a celebration of the franchise but also as an in-universe tribute to original Yellow Power Ranger actor Thuy Trang. Establishing that Trini had a daughter and that Mihn wanted to fight alongside the Rangers in the name of her mother was a great yet bittersweet way to conclude Trini’s story in the Power Rangers universe while paying homage to Thuy Trang.
The Power Rangers reunion was also bittersweet when it came to Jason David Frank, who played Tommy Oliver in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as well as in multiple other seasons. Power Rangers’ 30th-anniversary special was filmed before Jason David Frank’s death, meaning that the special does not address Tommy’s fate in the story as it is doing with Trini. The Green Ranger appears in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, although the character does not remove his helmet. Jason David Frank reportedly did not participate in the special, but still, seeing the Green Ranger on screen is emotional for fans, and the special is dedicated to the memories of both Frank and Trang with the reminder that “Once a Ranger, always a Ranger.”
