Every superhero has a mentor, if superhero movies have taught us anything at all. Zordon serves as the Power Rangers’ mentor. Due to a temporal distortion that prevents him from being in physical space, he was born on an extraterrestrial planet and has been imprisoned in a pipe on Earth.
What happens when Zordon commands the robot Alpha 5 to find five teenagers with attitude for him is now history. Despite his lack of self-disclosure, Zordon plays a crucial role in the first six seasons of the Power Rangers TV series. He is essential to giving the Rangers a competitive advantage over the opposition, but he is still a very enigmatic figure.
Exploring the origins of Zordon
The main character of the Power Rangers television series is Zordon from Eltar. He was a renowned cosmic sage who fought for justice and against evil. He is well known for coming up with the Power Rangers. He made his debut in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and continued to feature regularly through Power Rangers: Turbo before passing away in the Power Rangers in Space finale. Zordon’s first voice and superimposed face were both contributed by David Fielding. Bob Manahan took over as Zordon’s voice after Fielding left the show for other endeavors, and he did so until his passing.
It is unknown where Zordon came from, how he was raised on Eltar, or how he became a leader in the struggle against evil. What is known about him is that he was present when Rita Repulsa was born almost 10,000 years ago on the planet Iutus, at Rita’s mother Lady Fienna’s bedside.
Zordon gave Rita a rattle for a newborn. Zordon was eager to protect Fienna and Rita from Master Vile, but he first wanted to celebrate Rita’s birth. Zordon once paid King Lexian of Edenoi a visit. Alpha 1 was created by the Edenoi to aid Zordon in his battle against evil, but a space battle almost destroyed it.
Zordon watched the cosmos suffer at the evil hands of Master Vile in a battle and loathed himself for not being able to protect the galaxy on his own. Because he and others did not anticipate Zordon to wage a war by himself, and because King Lexian believed the battle was still winnable, Zordon was not to blame.
Rita Repulsa attempted to conquer several worlds in the cosmos between 8 and 10,000 years ago. Zordon was one of her strongest opponents. Conflict broke out among Zordon and Rita’s forces. This conflict lasted two thousand years and spanned innumerable realms.
Many of Zordon’s troops were killed in combat against Rita’s minions, including the Nasty Knight. Rita joined the service of the mighty Lord Zedd, who tasked her to seize Earth at some point during her conflict with Zordon. She and her minions occupied a castle on the Earth’s Moon, situated above the mighty Zeo Crystal. During this time, Zordon also acquired five Power Coins as well as a roadmap towards the Desert of Despair.
Rita was also believed to have obtained another power coin, the Dragonzord, and also the Dragon Dagger through unknown ways. Zordon came relatively close to winning in the last days of the battle. Rita persuaded Zordon to meet with her by promising peace. This, however, was a trap. Rita sent Zordon into something of a time warp, where he would exist outside of regular time and ultimately come in contact via a tube. On the other hand, Zordon was able to trap Rita and her henchmen in a space dump where they would remain forever – until they were found in 1993 on a wandering planetoid.
Zordon was aware that Rita might return and resume her battle on Earth. In preparation, he built the Command Center within the desert in California and utilized it to orchestrate the formation of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It was sometime during this time that he encountered Alpha 5, a youthful robot made by King Lexian, and became a parental figure to him after he was forced to flee his home world, Edenoi.
Zordon had another pupil called Gosei, who he taught his methods. After completing his training, he dispatched him to some other Command Center to serve as the Earth’s protector if in case something unfortunate occurred to Zordon. He also prepped for the invasion of evil by scattering vital weapons around the solar system, including the Mega Voyager, which he placed on a Jupiter moon during his stay in the tube.
Dark Specter dispatched Psycho Green to Earth in 1969 CE to launch an attack. Zordon assembled a group of five experts from various nations to take on the role of Power Rangers and protect Earth from Psycho Green on the Moon. The band he organized, however, lacked coordination, and 3 of his 5 handpicked Rangers were slain in their one and only assignment. Zordon felt awful about the decision he took.
New mysteries are being revealed now, with more to follow in BOOM! Studios’ Mighty Morphin #1, written by Ryan Parrott and illustrated by Marco Renna. Part of this will be establishing Zordon’s past. Zordon apparently had his own body on his home planet Eltar, where he had been a member of the Guardians of Eltar, a Power Rangers prototype. Zordon is proven to be the Bronze Guardian of Eltar, defending and working with the Silver and Gold Guardians in a flashback.
As Mighty Morphin proceeds, it appears that more tales about Zordon’s stint as the Bronze Guardian will be told, but Zordon also begins to tell Billy about more tranquil stories of his history on Eltar, while he still had a body. Not just that, but the first Issue concludes with Skull’s new lover, Candice, revealing that she is truly from Eltar, collaborating with a dark entity with unclear intentions, declaring that Eltar must be defended.
With the revelation of Candice’s actual nature, it appears that Zordon’s history will be a significant driving force in the series’ present-day plot. What other truths can we uncover regarding Zordon and his home planet, and how will it affect the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the future? We can only wait and wonder.
His appearance in two major Power Rangers movies
Zordon is an ancient entity from the world of Eltar, who, a long time ago, was a sorcerer and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ instructor in the 1995 film “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.” Zordon created a Command Center out beyond Angel Grove, California, centuries ago to help in his never-ending war with evil. He sought out six youngsters, along with Alpha 5, to turn into a superhuman combat force. To confront the evils of Rita Repulsa as well as Lord Zedd, he gave them superpowers, armor, an arsenal, and giant vehicles called Zords.
As the film begins, we learn that Zordon detected the resurrection of Ivan Ooze, a monster of incredible depravity whom he had exiled years before. He instantly gathers the Rangers and notifies them of the emergency. When the Rangers are unable to prevent Lord Zedd from releasing Ivan from his Hyperlock Chamber, they confront his ooze creatures. During the fight, Ooze finds and destroys the Command Center, destroying Zordon’s time warp during this act.
Zordon then starts to age quickly. The Rangers travel to a planet named Phaedos, where they acquire a legendary Great Power with the assistance of Master Warrior Dulcea. After defeating Ivan Ooze, all the Rangers return back to the Command Center, just to discover that Zordon has died. By using the Great Power, they are able to resurrect him, repairing his energy tube as well as the Command Center at the end.
Zordon was enacted physically by Nicholas Bell using face projection, although Bob Manahan retained his vocal portrayal from the TV show. Zordon appears on the show as a head amid blue waves. However, in the movie, he appears as a fully disembodied head while he is within the tube. Zordon is always in a time warp throughout the film, which allows him to stay ageless.
When Ivan Ooze damaged his energy tube, he started to age fast. But when Andros destroys his tube in the series, he dies on impact. Zordon was a part of the “Order of Meledon” in an older edition of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. He was hailed as the galaxy’s best commander, an absolute legend. He went on to continue the fight against evil elsewhere when the Order’s foes were destroyed over time.
Zordon is a great trainer to the Power Rangers in the 2017 film “Power Rangers,” and he is performed and narrated by Bryan Cranston. He used to be the Red Ranger. Bryan Cranston played Zordon via motion capture. Zordon arrived on the planet as the Red Ranger thousands of years ago, in the Cenozoic era, to combat Rita Repulsa, who was the Green Ranger. She nearly succeeded in murdering Zordon’s crew, just for Zordon to direct the course of a meteor carrying the treasured Zeo crystal over her and her beasts. Zordon was also slain as a result of this. Alpha 5 saved his essence and imprinted it on their spacecraft.
Zordon appeared online as an apparition of the ship thousands of years later, after Billy Cranston with four other humans found the power coins and, eventually, the ship. When he saw that there were fresh Rangers ready to take up the mantle, he recognized that now the Morphing Grid was going to open – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to resurrect himself. Zordon warns the Rangers about Rita Repulsa as well as her pursuit for the Zeo Crystal, the extraction of which would destroy Earth and give Rita the ability to create and cause devastation.
He prepares the Rangers using Alpha 5 so that they can ultimately become Rangers, only to be frustrated that they lack the ability to transform despite their powers. Jason realizes that Zordon wished for them to grow and thrive in order to resurrect and suspects that this was his primary motivation for training them, despite Zordon’s insistence that it will always be about protecting the Earth and that Jason is the only person who can help lead the group and hold back Rita.
This all shifts when Zordon develops a connection with the Power Rangers shortly after Billy’s death. Zordon revives Billy instead, when the Morphin Grid unlocks, and the Rangers achieve their full potential. Zordon then feels sure that the current five are indeed actual Power Rangers.
In contrast to his Prime Reality version, who was a parental figure for the Rangers and handled them kindly and with dignity, this Zordon is a wartime leader who wants the newest Rangers to execute his orders to the letter. This frustrates him since he is working with teenagers. Zordon seems to have a hidden side, as evidenced by his failure to communicate his intentions to the Rangers fully.
He is an excellent leader, but he is haunted by the remorse for the loss of his original Power Rangers team to Rita Repulsa, the ex-Green Ranger, who was once his ally. In addition to his Ranger loyalty, Zordon exhibited a calculated and somewhat selfish character since he intended to revive himself in order to face Rita with the younger generation of Power Rangers.
However, when confronted with Jason’s frigid mood and critical remarks, Zordon has second thoughts and decides to give up his chance at life in an attempt to resurrect Billy back from the dead, because the Blue Ranger perished, protecting his companions. When confronted by the Power Rangers about his choice, Zordon stated there would be no need for multiple Red Rangers, surrendering the torch to them and embracing his own death.
His appearance in the Power Rangers TV series
We learn in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers timeline that Rita’s dump was located and unsealed by astronauts in 1993, and she quickly resumed her preparations to destroy Earth. Zordon, now only visible as a gigantic blue head in a blue light tower, requested Alpha to recruit five “teenagers with attitude,” resulting in the formation of the first batch of Power Rangers. The team included Billy Cranston, Jason Lee Scott, Kimberly Hart, Trini Kwan, and Zack Taylor.
Each Power Ranger got a Power Coin, the 5 coins used in the eons-ago coin-flip that sealed the fate of the universe, and thus Zordon formed his Mighty Morphin Power Rangers strike force. Tommy Oliver damaged the Command Center and severed the link to Zordon after becoming the villainous Green Ranger using the 6th Power Coin Rita gave him. Alpha restored the link after much struggle, and Zordon assisted the Rangers in stopping Tommy’s wicked rampage.
Zordon welcomed the new Ranger with wide arms once the evil enchantment on Tommy was broken, even giving him a considerable portion of his own power to remake him the Green Ranger once more, so he could recapture the stolen Power Coins. When his abilities ran out, he transformed him into a White Ranger. Zordon changed the Rangers’ Dinozords into Thunderzords when Lord Zedd exiled Rita and launched his own conquest of Earth.
Zordon was deionized – meaning powered down – in the episode titled “The Wanna-Be Ranger,” owing to the planets aligning. When he re-ionized, he grew very concerned about Alpha abandoning the Command Center, so when Alpha returned home, he chastised him for abandoning the Center without alerting the Rangers and seeking permission to do so.
Zordon eventually bid farewell to 4 of his initial Rangers. Zack, Trini, and Jason were requested to join a peace summit in Switzerland and were succeeded by three Rangers friends – Adam Park, Aisha Campbell, and Rocky DeSantos. When Kimberly wanted to go to Florida to work on her athletics, she recruited Katherine Hillard as her successor, a teen who had been exploited by Rita as well as Zedd for nefarious reasons. Though Zordon was saddened to see his previous Rangers depart, he joyfully embraced each of the newfound Rangers and wished the previous ones luck in their future endeavors.
Except for a few brief moments, Zordon served as a mentor and adviser to both the original iteration and the Turbo Rangers. It was revealed at this stage that bringing him back would be perilous, if not deadly, due to the length of time he had spent in the parallel reality, as the Power Rangers would soon discover. When Master Vile reverses the Rangers backward into children, Zordon sends them, with the exception of Billy, through various time portals to recover the Zeo Crystal’s sub crystals.
Zordon continues to serve as a guide to the Alien Rangers, who have been protecting Earth since the Rangers’ departure. When the Rangers return, Zordon, with Billy’s help, repairs the Crystal and returns the Rangers to adulthood. Unfortunately, Rito Revolto and Goldar install a bomb beneath the Command Center and explode it, seemingly killing Alpha and Zordon.
In the Zeo series, we discover that Alpha, as well as Zordon, survive by bringing the Rangers underground to the Power Chamber, where they are transformed into Zeo Rangers. Tanya Sloan, the replacement Yellow Ranger brought back by Aisha in her stead, is warmly welcomed by Zordon.
With Billy as a technical assistant, Zordon continues to train the Rangers, providing them new weaponry, Zords, and any advice he can provide against the Machine Empire’s monsters that threaten Earth. Jason, one of Zordon’s previous Rangers, gets temporary possession of the Gold Zeo Ranger abilities from Trey of Triforia. Zordon appeared in Adam’s dream as Zordonicus, a shady sage magician comparable to The Wizard of Oz. It turns out that this apparition has been King Mondo all along.
In the Turbo era, A year after the Machine Empire is defeated, the righteous wizard Lerigot arrives on Earth to avoid Divatox, who seeks his magical key capable of securely going through to another realm and joining forces with Maligore. He begs the assistance of Zordon, who calls the Rangers, knowing that the Zeo abilities will not suffice to fight Divatox and Maligore. He and Alpha started working on the Turbo abilities, and for the first time, a sentient creature, rather than an artifact made by one, was the origin of a Ranger’s ability.
Earlier on, Zordon, as well as Alpha 5, uncover a temporary wormhole that will transport them back to Eltar. He has the sorcerer Lerigot use his power to free Zordon of his time warp, allowing him and Alpha to travel to Eltar and be reconnected with his home, saying goodbye to his Power Rangers and putting them in the competent hands of a longstanding friend, Dimitria.
Zordon subsequently returns to Eltar to watch the power transfer ritual with Alpha before departing. What happened to Zordon after that is unknown, save that he is embroiled in the conflict on Eltar, where the great king of evil, Dark Specter, and the United Alliance of Evil’s soldiers invade the planet and kidnap Zordon.
After conquering Eltar, the evil ruler Dark Specter detains Zordon in a power conduit and gradually drains his power. As this occurs, lava starts to rise from the tube’s bottom, destroying Zordon as the emptying process is completed. Later, Zordon is sent to some other planet to be secured by Divatox, in which the Space Rangers step in. Zordon, unfortunately, is removed from there, and Astronema dispatches the Crocovile to divert the Rangers.
In the end, Andros is obliged to murder Zordon by destroying the column that confines him in order to conquer evil and get it over with by emitting a mighty energy wave that sweeps across numerous universes on the instructions of his former mentor. Zordon’s Energy Wave wipes many of the universe’s monsters and villains while also purifying Rita, Zedd, Divatox, and Astronema. Although he is no longer among us, his spirit lives on with all that is wonderful.
Zordon was shown in a Power Ranger history book created by Tommy Oliver right after forming the Dino Rangers, which the fledgling Ranger team discovered in the Dino Lab. Although the line “It’s Morphin Time!” is generally regarded as Jason Lee Scott’s hallmark line, it was actually Zordon who created the phrase in the second episode. Zordon is the only advisor in the Power Rangers franchise to be permanently murdered and never seen or resurrected again, although being referenced multiple times in subsequent episodes. He is still the only advisor character who has appeared in far more than two seasons.
What makes Zordon so special?
In the series, Zordon has accessibility to the energy of the morphing grid, but he no longer appears to be able to use magic. That’s not to suggest he couldn’t before. Before getting trapped in the time warp, Zordon is referred to as a sorcerer in the same manner that Rita Repulsa is referred to as a sorceress. He also fights her for a long time, implying that he used to have some sort of magic to cope up with her.
Zordon has faith in Alpha-5 to handle the power coins and recruit youngsters to don the suits. However, he is also involved in the founding of a few more clubs. Of course, Zordon contributes to the development of the technology that drives the Zeo as well as Turbo Power Rangers. He’s still around during those seasons.
However, in Power Rangers In Space, he is shown as somebody who has trained Andros and concealed the Megaship for him. It’s unknown when he’s been able to do so, because Andros was in orbit while Zordon has been on Earth.
Conclusion
Zordon is an enigmatic but kind character who is always there to help and advise the Power Rangers in times of struggle and defeat. Throughout the TV series, he serves as the Rangers’ staunchest supporter and most significant ally and helps them get through thick and thin with his generational knowledge and wisdom.
Zordon is also highly learned and has a millennium of information stored within him, which is why he, along with Alpha, can contribute and work together to form the newer iterations or generations of Power Rangers. Zordon is genuinely a good guy to the core and the Power Rangers’ most essential and biggest mentor. His loss left a significant impact on the series, and we as Power Rangers fans can only hope that we get a resurrection of this iconic character again, even if it is brief and short-lived.