Fox, AKM-GSI It's official: Elizabeth Banks is playing Rita Repulsa, the villain in the upcoming Power Rangers movie!
"After 10,000 years, I'm free!" the actress tweeted Tuesday. "It's time to conquer Earth!! Time to play #RitaRepulsa #PowerRangersMovie."
Rita, who has been portrayed my multiple actresses in past Power Rangers productions, is serious about world domination. Assuming history repeats itself, Elizabeth's character will stop at nothing to stop those Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (played by Becky G, Ludi Lin, Dacre Montgomery and R.J. Cyler). In any case, though, we can expect Rita Repulsa to be as evil as ever—and Elizabeth is totally perfect to play the part! Here are five reasons why.
1. She Can Be Seriously Scary: OK, not Elizabeth Banks the person, but Elizabeth Banks the actress! In 2009's The Uninvited, Elizabeth plays a woman who (no spoilers) possibly murdered her entire family and is plotting to kill another. If you watch the clip above, you'll see terrifying Elizabeth gearing up to pounce on her prey. The look on her face when she's clasping that girl's necklace is chilling.
2. She's Talented at Fully Transforming With the Help of Hair and Makeup: Ladies and gentlemen, Effie Trinkett! The Hunger Games wasn't the first time Elizabeth became virtually unrecognizable for a role, but her character in this franchise took it to new levels. She also nailed the semi-unhinged, zany thing ridiculously well as Effie, and we have a feeling she'll rely on those same skills again as Rita Repulsa.
I wanna call BS on the kids only rule, climb thru #Batman's legs (#goals) and bounce til I puke pic.twitter.com/aODQFjl9cK
? Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) July 15, 2015
3. She's a Kid at Heart: We're not expecting Elizabeth to have any trouble getting fully obsessed with the Power Rangers plot. As evidenced by the tweet above, she's totally down for all things superhero (and in her case, super-villain).
4. She Has Tough Critics She Absolutely Cannot Disappoint: Forget about die-hard fans of the original Power Rangers—Elizabeth has two young sons who will be absolutely blunt with their reviews! Felix, who turns 5 next month, and Magnus, 3, are going to expect mom to pull out all the stops as Rita. We're sure she will anyway, but this is some added some pressure from her most important critics.
5. She's Coming at This From All Angles: Elizabeth made her directorial debut with Pitch Perfect 2, and now that she's worked on both sides of the camera, we're even more excited to see what she brings to this and other future roles.
"It was really an amazing experience," she told E! News after production wrapped. "You know, just wearing more hats...and trying to build on the foundation of the first film and trying to give fans something that they will really enjoy and just that people will generally have fun with."
While Dean Israelite is directing this Power Rangers reboot, Elizabeth and the other actors will all help in rebuild that Mighty Morphin foundation for the next generation of viewers.