Power Rangers star Amy Jo Johnson is fighting off rumors instead of Rita Repulsa. Johnson turned down the opportunity to star in Netflix’s upcoming reunion special, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, making her one of the few surviving stars not to return. There were longstanding rumors that she turned down the offer to join the special because of money, but she said that is not the case.
“Please stop saying I didn’t do reunion because of money Simply not true. Maybe I just didn’t want to wear spandex in my 50s… or couldn’t go to NZ for a month,” Johnson, 52, tweeted on Sunday. “Or none of [your] beeswax. [Jason David Frank] & I both chose not to for our own reasons. They filmed before he passed.”
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Although she is not participating, she wished her former co-stars the best. “Excited to see my pals [David Yost] & [Walter Emanuel Jones] rock it though,” she wroteย in a follow-up tweet. Johnson also retweeted Yostย when he posted the newest trailer on March 21.
After Netflix, Hasbro and eOne shared photos of Once & Always with Entertainment Weeklyย in January, fans noticed that Johnson was nowhere to be found. At that point, it also wasn’t clear if the special was filmed before or after Frank died in November 2022. Yost and Jones are joined by Catherine Sutherland, Steve Cardenas, Karan Ashley, and Johnny Yong Bosch in the special. Sutherland replaced Johnson as the Pink Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3. There is also a tribute to Thuy Trang, the original Yellow Ranger who died in 2001.
“For the record, I never said no… I just didn’t say yes to what was offered,” Johnson tweeted on Jan. 18. “But other fun stuff is in-store! Looking forward to watching my friends kick ass!”
Johnson played Kimberly Hart in the first three seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and starred in the 1995 movie. Her decision not to appear in Once & Always came as a shock because she still has close ties to the franchise. She regularly attends Power Rangers conventions and even made a cameo appearance in the 2017 Power Rangers reboot movie. However, she has turned to television directing recently, helming an episode of The CW’s Superman & Lois last year.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always was created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original series. The story sees the team reuniting to face the villain Rita Repulsa once again, while a global crisis arises. The special will be released on Netflix on April 19. Meanwhile, fans can watch the original Mighty Morphin series on Netflix, as well as Power Rangers: Ninja Steel, Power Rangers: Beast Morphers, and Power Rangers: Dino Fury.ย
