SDCC 2015: The Cast of ‘Power Rangers Dino Charge’ Want Lightsabers, a Team Up With Khaleesi and ‘Arrow’

Power Rangers Dino Charge has been kicking butt.

Under the leadership and direction of Chip Lynn and its charismatic, electric cast to captivate you, Power Rangers is finally a show worth getting excited about again. It’s smart, compelling, riveting, and most of all, entertaining. If I had a son, daughter, or even a little nephew (Actually I do, but he’s too into Call of Duty to care) we would easily bond over Dino Charge. It’s been a true return to form of what makes Power Rangers great without cheaply aping Mighty Morphin’ or anything that came before it.

At the “Power Lounge,” a luxurious space across the San Diego Convention Center decorated to the brim with Power Rangers merchandise and collectibles, the cast of Power Rangers Dino Charge were hanging out and having the time of their lives. The whole gang was there: Brennan Meija (Tyler, the Red Ranger), Camille Hyde (Shelby, the Pink Ranger and the franchise’s first African-American girl to wear pink), Yoshi Sudarso (Koda, the Blue Ranger and dyed-in-the-wool Power Rangers fan), Michael Tarber (Riley, the Green Ranger), James Davies (Chase, the Black Ranger) and Claire Blackwelder (Kendall, the Rangers’ aide, like Alpha 5 but way cuter).

While sipping on a “super charged” lemonade sorbet… thing… that the lounge staff were serving, I sat down with the cast of Dino Charge to get the scoop on some curious happenings on the show and to find out, once and for all, is Kendall going to finally morph? She totally will. Right?

First of all, welcome to Comic-Con. How has it been for you guys so far?

James Davies: It’s been great, so much fun.

Camille Hyde: It’s been really fun. It’s our first time here, so it’s pretty overwhelming, but in the best way. It’s kind of like an adult Disneyland. All of the people here, all of the fans, are kind of like young kids again, seeing all of their superheroes.

About that, because geek culture has just gotten so big, everyone’s really into it. Are you surprised by how older the audience could skew for Power Rangers even though it’s still a kids’ show?

Brennan Meija: We’re still fans, so, not really. We grew up watching it, and still watch it.

Yoshi Sudarso: I can see that it’s been more accepted recently because I used to watch Super Sentai and all that other stuff, but I never knew, although my friends that did, but now as it’s coming out, it’s like, “Oh, bro, you’re a Ranger!” Then he’s like, “I love Super Sentai” I was like, “Me too!” We have to talking about it. So many of my friends are into Super Sentai but none of us talk about it. Except for *FBR, obviously. It’s really interesting to see all of that.”

*(FBR is “Facebook Rangers,” the largest community of Power Rangers fans on Facebook.)

How much have your expectations changed from when you started the show to now?

Camille Hyde: I think going in, for us, at first, in the beginning of the season there was a lot of heart, it was very action filled, but going towards the end of the first season and going into Dino Super Charge, it gets pretty intense. So it’s very appealing to not only young kids, but also older adults too, because it’s gotten kind of gritty, and that’s awesome because it’s so much more real.

Michael Tarber: Yeah, the exposition’s been laid out, so now it’s time for the bang bang bang finish, see what happens.

Talk to me about your characters guys, individually. What kind of changes can we expect through their return this season?

Yoshi Sudarso: Koda’s going to eat more burgers and speak a little faster. [laughs]

Camille Hyde: He starts speaking, yeah. [laughs] He gets a little more fluent. He does. Shelby in the beginning she was a little insecure about knowing how smart she was and how she was competent and could keep up with the guys, like in episode one, she didn’t know if she could go off and fight monsters. Towards the end, she starts helping Tyler lead the team, and she starts to feel more grounded with her abilities.

Brennan Meija: Tyler starts off pretty goofy in the beginning. There’s still that element there, of course, as the season goes on, and we enter the second season, as well. I think there’s a level of a serious tone that starts to play within him as the fight gets more real, the stakes get higher, he’s still searching for his dad, as well. All those elements make for a more overall rounded and serious character who is there, not only to find his dad but to lead a team to save the world.

I’m  hearing this a lot. We may not get a full-blown “serious” Power Rangers, but are we really going to see a hard-hitting show. Is that really true?

Camille Hyde: Yeah, it is.

Michael Tarber: We wanted to swing from the fences from the very beginning. That’s been all of our goals, including our EP, Chip, and we from the beginning have always wanted to take a chance and go for as great of a show as we could possibly get. I didn’t want to say good, because we want to go great. Totally.

Claire, if you don’t mind me digging in a little bit, will we see Kendall morph in the future at all?

Claire Blackwelder: Kendall has a lot of things coming up for her that are very exciting, but she has a lot on her plate with the Ranger base, right now. As far as changes that you can see with Kendall, she’s going to lighten up in some ways and toughen up in others, and you just got to be excited to see what happens with her.

Yoshi Sudarso: Like I said yesterday in the panel, she’s not Cam. She’s not going to just make a duplicate of herself. [laughs] We need someone to hold the base down!

It’s funny you mention that. Yoshi, you’re kind of like the David Tennant of Power Rangers.  You were the super fan who ended up living his wildest dreams. Have the fans treated you any differently since you’ve been on the show?

Yoshi Sudarso: Since I knew a lot of the fans before a lot of this started, most of them are still my friends. It’s not like I’m going to treat them any differently. We still hang out, we still talk Ranger stuff, I’m still on FBR talking about the things, so I just do my own thing. I think it’s really cool that they are treating me as a Ranger, and it’s less jealousy, more admiration and wanting to push them a little bit harder. I was afraid that it would be [bad]. Sometimes that is how the world is with fandoms, but I think it was received very well and I’m super happy about it.

So, what do you guys nerd over? Did you see it here at Comic-Con?

Brennan Meija: The CW [shows]! The Flash and Arrow. Oh my God. I want to get on those shows so badly! We should do a crossover.

Michael Tarber: Star Wars. I’m so obsessed!

Camille Hyde: Yeah, I love Star Wars.

Michael Tarber: I am so excited! People were hating on the new lightsaber. I actually think it’s pretty cool.

I think it’s badass.

Michael Tarber: I think it’s totally cool. I’m so happy that J.J. Abrams is taking over the franchise, and they’re filming with film, so it’s a real gritty look. I love everything that I’ve seen so far. I’m disappointed I had to miss the Lucasfilm panel this afternoon. I’m sure I can watch it somewhere online. Definitely Star Wars.

James Davies: Like Brandon, I’ve just gotten into the Arrow TV series. I’m a little bit late into it, but it’s seriously inspiring. Obviously The Flash is great as well. His [Grant Gustin’s] acting as well is just so natural and it’s really inspiring to people so I love it.

Claire Blackwelder: Well, the things that I nerd out over are Tolstoy, classical piano, and Shakespeare. I don’t think I’m going to see that here. [laughs]

If you look hard enough, you can.

Claire Blackwelder: Really? We’re going to have to talk after this because I got to find some of that! [laughs]

Camille Hyde: I’m a huge Star Wars fan as well, so I can’t wait to see Episode 7! I think it’s going to be amazing. I’m also a huge Hunger Games fan, so today when I was hearing about some of the fans coming to get our autographs, [they were] talking about going to see the Hunger Games people, I freaked out. I was like, “Where are they?” [laughs] I’m going to take someone out to go find them!

Michael Tarber: It was a crazy thought to think that an Oscar winner, Jennifer Lawrence, was signing autographs ten feet behind us.

Camille Hyde: I was like, “Excuse me, do you mind if I slip away to go to the bathroom?”

Claire Blackwelder: Oh! Game of Thrones!

(At this point there is massive crosstalk among the cast due to their fandom and love for Game of Thrones, making it difficult to transcribe. It was hard to tell who was saying what.)

Can we talk about how crazy this last season was?

Yoshi Sudarso: Wait wait wait! I haven’t seen the last season.

OK, then. Without spoiling or mentioning you-know-what, what did you guys think? What was your emotional feeling? Loss, anger…

Michael Tarber: I don’t know if I’ve accepted it. I’m in denial. It’s the first step of the grieving process, that’s what I’ll say.

So going off of that and the whole Comic-Con experience: In a world of possibilities, if Power Rangers can cross over with anything, what would you want to cross over with?

Brennan Meija: DC. Justice League. All the way.

Really?

Brennan Meija: Yeah, going against Darkseid? Are you kidding me? That’d be great!

Camille Hyde: Yeah, it’d be pretty epic.

Michael Tarber: I’m just saying, if Riley could trade in his Dino Saber for a Jedi lightsaber…

Camille Hyde: Ohhh!

Michael Tarber: That would be pretty cool! Maybe a Darth Maul-like double-sided green saber.

Yoshi Sudarso: It ain’t too far fetched to go into Marvel. I mean, we already got Leopardon on there, we might as well get the Rangers on there. Stan Lee, if you’re listening, we need to get on this and bring Leopardon back in, you know what I’m saying? [laughs] We could have the Megazord on there.

James Davies: Arrow all the way, man.

Michael Tarber: Yeah, like a cool “Ranger Arrow,” or something like that.

And Claire, I assume you’re with Game of Thrones?

Claire Blackwelder: Oh yeah.

Yoshi Sudarso: Oh, that’d be tight!

Brennan Meija: Fighting the dragons?

Michael Tarber: If Khaleesi could somehow come and become a Power Ranger, I would not… A dragon zord? I wouldn’t complain if she was part of our team.

On Instagram, there was a post from the Power Rangers account saying, “The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers will crossover with the Power Rangers Dino Charge!” We didn’t hear anything else. What’s the story behind that?

Camille Hyde: I don’t know.

Yoshi Sudarso: I think it’s just talking about how people want the three dinosaur teams to meet up, just like the Sentai. I guess you guys will have to find out if that’ll happen or not.

Camille Hyde: Yeah. If fans want it, you may never know!

Michael Tarber: Part of the magic of the creativity that the fans bring to the franchise.

Any last words about Power Rangers and what we can expect this season?

Camille Hyde: You’re going to see some new Rangers, you’re going to see some new villains, and new powers. You’re going to have to tune in.

Michael Tarber: The stakes are raised…

Brennan, Camille, Yoshi, James, Michael, and Claire: On August 29th at noon on Nickelodeon!

Wait, August 28th at 11 am?

[group laugh]

Is that it?

Brennan Meija: Yes! Yes!

Yoshi Sudarso: Yes, that’s perfect. You got it.

Power Rangers Dino Charge returns on August 29th at noon on Nickelodeon. I think. Special thanks to Paula Gaetos of The Tokusatsu Network for taking the photos!