Power Rangers reinterpreted all its main characters for a new generation, but none was more distanced from their original Mighty Morphin' counterpart than Goldar. Rather than being one of Rita's bumbling minions, he was turned into a gigantic monster actually made out of gold for the reboot. Director Dean Israelite attributed the massive redesign to making Goldar actually want to matter in the story rather than be a mere flunky. He explained:
I said with my production designer language lets sort of push the envelope on him. And it seemed to start ... and I said, we always have to go back to the mythology we're creating. And the mythology that we are creating is that Rita can ... has control over elements around her. And if she has control over the elements around her that's how she physicalizes and creates the Putties that are then made out of whatever environment is around her and that that logic should hold true to Goldar and Goldar then should then come out of this debunked gold mine that the whole movie is set around.
While reaction Power Rangers' version of Goldar have been mixed, Dean Israelite's rationale to Comicbook.com about why his look was altered does make sense. Because Rita Repulsa is creating her monster army from Earth's elements, it fits that Goldar would fit into that mold rather than be some alien that she recruited ahead of time. Israelite also said that Goldar's different appearance was also meant to fit in with the other organic-looking redesigns in the movie. The director continued:
Well the honest answer is that I feel like we've just seen a kind of a gargoyle type monster so many times now since the show has started. And my goal, with the movie, was to really give Power Rangers its own aesthetic and its own language. And you'll notice the each and the Zords, and the space ship, and ultra five and even Zordon ... they're all very organic. All the shapes are very organic. They're very alive. They're biomechanical.
Goldar was brought into play later in Power Rangers when the freshly-awakened Rita Repulsa started gathering gold from places all around Angel Grove to form him. Her plan was to have Goldar retrieve the Zeo Crystal so she could destroy all life on Earth, but the newly-morphed Rangers quickly jumped into action in their Zords to prevent the space witch from succeeding. In the end, Goldar was destroyed, and Rita was literally slapped into space. Say what you will about how different Power Rangers' Goldar was compared to his TV predecessor, but at least he was more integral to the plot than had he just been a demonic, ape-looking monster with wings.
Power Rangers is now available to buy on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD and 4K. If there's any news about a sequel moving forward, we'll be sure to keep you updated.
