When Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers premiered in 1993, the original lineup of teenagers with attitude including Austin St. John as Jason, the Red Ranger, and Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly, the Pink Ranger. Both actors would end up leaving Mighty Morhpin’ before it finished its run, but they’re still closely associated with the Power Rangers franchise, and have even returned to their old stomping grounds on one or more occasions. However, following St. John revealing that he has a clothing line coming out featuring Hitler quotes, Johnson has bluntly responded to this apparel choice.
Austin St. John recently appeared on Toon’d In with Jim Cummings to talk about his career, and towards the end of the interview, he talked about the clothing line he’s launching that has quotes from “warriors” throughout history in various languages. As he explained:
So I have some Ranger-oriented clothes, and then I’m building a ‘Warrior’ line, where I will go back in history from pre-Greek days, as far back as I can. I’m gonna have famous quotes from warriors of all ilks, including the terrible ones. Hitler was, you know, a demon on steroids, but he had some pretty good one-liners. So everybody from the great ones to the infamous and terrible ones.
St. John added that Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris would also be featured in the clothing line, and that the point of it is to “to look to our past, to leaders both good and terrible and take from them what you can.” As one might have been able to predict, the mention of displaying quotes from Adolph Hitler for these clothes has received a lot of attention, and Amy Jo Johnson threw in her two cents by first posting the below vague statement on X (formerly known as Twitter):
Hmmm? I think some people should have publicists. 😬 Dear me…
Now this by itself could be in reference to anything, but then the actress posted a more direct statement on X making it clear that she was referring to Austin St. John:
Rogue Red Ranger has an entire new meaning. Okay I’ll stop now. 😬
I think it’s safe to say Amy Jo Johnson is among the people who disapprove of Austin St. John going in this direction with his clothing line. It is worth noting that on his website, no clothing displaying quotes from Adolph Hitler are featured. Whether or not he’ll still go through with this controversial merchandise or issue a statement on the matter remains to be seen.
Following his initial departure from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, Austin St. John reprised Jason during Power Rangers Zeo, where the character became the Gold Ranger. He and Amy Jo Johnson then appeared in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, albeit not as one of the title heroes, and St. John then reprised Jason in the “Forever Red” episode of Power Rangers Wild Force and the “Grid Connection” episode of Power Rangers Beast Morphers. While Johnson has never returned to the Power Rangers TV space, she did cameo with the late Jason David Frank in 2017’s Power Rangers reboot.
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers celebrated its 30th anniversary last year with the special Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always, which was released exclusively to Netflix subscribers. Neither Austin St. John nor Amy Jo Johnson appeared in the special, with the latter debunking that she passed on it because of money. She is, however, keeping a foothold in the Power Rangers franchise by writing a comic book series about by writing a comic book series called Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: The Return, which is published by Boom! Studios.
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers can be streamed on Netflix now, and that platform will be home to the more adult-oriented Power Rangers series that’s in development. A time travel-centric Power Rangers movie was also announced back in 2019, but there haven’t been any updates lately on that project’s progress.