We continue our celebration of 20 years of Power Rangers with part 3 in my series. As I mentioned in the first article, there have been several changes to the Power Rangers cast and characters over the years. When Austin St. John, Thuy Trang and Walter Emanuel Jones opted to leave the show over their pay increases being denied, they were replaced by Karan Ashley, Johnny Yong Bosch, and Steve Cardenas. The series played it off that Jason, Trini and Zack were selected to represent the United States in the World Peace Conference.
Later during the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers miniseries, Karan Ashley left the show and was replaced by Nakia Burrise. In the series it was explained by having Aisha remain in Africa after finding her Zeo Crystal and sending her cousin Tonya back in her place. During Power Rangers Zeo, Austin St. John returns to take up the powers of the Gold Ranger temporarily. Austin leaves the series once again when the Gold Ranger powers are returned to Trey of Triforia, only to return again in Turbo: A Power Rangers movie and the Power Rangers Wild Force episode Forever Red.
In season 3 of MMPR, Amy Jo Johnson leaves the series and was replaced by Catherine Sutherland. In the series Kat joins the series as a minion of Rita’s but soon finds a way to battle her influence, and join the Rangers. Kimberly chooses to leave the Rangers with Zordon’s blessing in order to achieve her dream of competing in the Pan Global Games. Kimberly chooses Kat to pass her power coin on too. Eventually, Kimberly breaks up with Tommy in a Dear John letter and Kat becomes Tommy’s new flame and apparently ends up marrying him as seen in the MMPR Christmas episode which takes place in the future. Amy Jo Johnson returned to the roll of Kimberly alongside Austin St. John for Turbo: A Power Rangers movie.
Also in the Turbo movie, Steve Cardenas chose to leave the show making only a couple cameos throughout the Turbo season. Rocky was replaced as the Blue Ranger by Justin, a child who had discovered his secret. Justin was played by Blake Anthony Foster during the Turbo season and 2 episodes of Power Rangers in Space. Despite campaigning for another shot at playing Justin, Blake has yet to appear in any other episodes of Power Rangers.
One of the final original rangers, Billy left the series toward the end of Zeo. In the series he went to Aquitar after falling in love with an Aquitaine. But in reality, David Yost explained to NoPinkSpandex that he actually left do to harassment by the production crew for being a homosexual. Yost has yet to return to any of the Power Ranger series.
Tommy, Tonya, Kat and Adam eventually passed their Turbo powers on to TJ, Cassie, Carlos, and Ashley. Adam returns twice during the current life span of Power Rangers, once in Power Rangers in Space and again during Operation Overdrive. Tommy returns during the Power Rangers Wild Force episode Forever Red along with Austin St. John (it should be noted that Steve Cardenas did not appear in the episode despite being a former Red Ranger). Tommy returns again as Dr. Tommy Oliver aka the Black Dino Thunder Ranger and again in S.P.D (although not played by Jason David Frank) and is mentioned in the Operation Overdrive episode that Adam was in. Tonya and Katherine have yet to return in any of the other seasons.
Where are They Now?
Karan Ashley is still acting and directing but also works full time as a radio show host on Uncensored Radio (a different type of Talk Radio) which airs via blog over the internet.
Nakia Burrise is still acting, but not a lot is mentioned about her on her Facebook or Wikipedia.
Johnny Yong Bosch continues to act doing mainly voice work in anime and is also a lead singer in the band Eyeshine.
Steve Cardenas quit acting after Power Rangers in 1997 and continues to focus on his martial arts dojos in California and Texas
Catherine Sutherland is still acting in small parts (it should be noted that she appeared nude in “The Cell” as a dead victim)
Blake Anthony Foster still continues to act but according to his Facebook page, he would rather be appearing once again in Power Rangers.