Bryan Cranston Compares the “Grittier” Power Rangers Reboot to The Dark Knight

The new Power Rangers movie could be a total flop, but at least we’ll see Bryan “Heisenberg” Cranston as the multi-colored heroes’ floating head mentor Zordon.

Cranston tells the Huffington Post he was “at first reticent” about the role because of the series’ “farcical and silly and ‘pow’ and ‘zow’” nature.” However, he says that initial hesitation was immediately put to rest after reading the script and talking to director Dean Israelite about the film:

After that I went, ‘This is different.’ This is as different a reimagining as the Batman television series as it became the Batman movie series. You can’t compare those two, and nor can you compare this movie version of the Power Rangers to that television series. It’s unrecognizable for the most part.

Cranston later clarified that the movie won’t be as back-breakingly brooding as Christopher Nolan’s trilogy.

I don’t know if the tone is as dark as that because you’re dealing with teenagers. So the appropriateness of that, and real teenage life, and going through high school and the cliques and the popularity or lack thereof, and the bullies and all the different sections and sub-sections of high school life, and the insecurities of these kids and things like that—hopes and dreams—and you embrace all of that into a retelling of the Power Rangers. And what you would get is this new version, this new reimagined version.

Let’s hope Israelite and his team of writers heed the warnings of what gritty reboots can lead to when taken too far, a la the murder-happy mayhem of the Power/Rangers short film. Doom and gloom also certainly didn’t work in the favor of Fantastic Four or Batman v Superman.

While pondering the possibilities of Cranston’s interview, enjoy a clip of the actor lending his voice to the tonsil snake-spewing Snizzard from the original Power Rangers TV series below.

Power Rangers will appear in theaters March 24, 2017.