When it comes to Lionsgate’s Power Rangers movie, many words have been used to describe the costumes and character designs – radical, metallic, perplexing – but nightmarish isn’t one of them. Had things panned out differently for writer-director Max Landis, who originally pitched a script for the reboot three years ago, the studio’s franchise revival may well have featured a very, very different version of Rita Repulsa.
Pitch Perfect star Elizabeth Banks has been cast as the nefarious alien queen, and her lime-green battle armor is designed in a way that chimes with the world Lionsgate and director Dean Israelite are building – realism first, fantasy second. Upon being approached by Landis in 2013, though, concept artist Matt Frank had a very different idea in mind for Repulsa, eventually going on to render a creation he calls ‘Xeno-Rita’.
Ditching the skin-tight guise and human figure, Frank dreamed up a truly nightmarish interpretation of the supervillain, replete with elongated claws, horns, and that iconic staff. Channeling the character’s ancient evil, the artist shed some light on the story behind the picture (via Comic Book Resources):
“Max Landis approached me back in 2013 to do some concept art for #PowerRangers when he was doing a script treatment,” Frank explains. “I had other obligations at the time and could only do a quick Rita, so I pulled from his concept of the ‘ancient evil’ and made a kind of ‘Xeno-Rita’ – enjoy!”
‘Xeno-Rita’ would surely leave our Rangers quaking in their boots. Here’s a high-res pic of the concept art in question:
Alas, given that Lionsgate decided to pass on the Max Landis-penned treatment, this Rita Repulsa won’t be lighting up the silver screen anytime soon. That onus is on Elizabeth Banks, who will descend on Angel Grove to hunt down the Power Rangers on March 24th, 2017.
