Power Rangers is an enduring franchise that's been around since 1993, beginning with Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. The Red Ranger is always (with a few exceptions) the leader of the Power Rangers - for better or for worse. There has been over 25 seasons worth of Red Rangers, and they have not always left a legacy to be proud of.
Some Red Rangers have proven their strength and courage through their willingness to sacrifice their lives in the line of duty. Others have turned evil, skipped out on Ranger duties to play pachinko, or gone on cross-country trips with their parents. So, who are the greatest Red Rangers - and who aren't? Find out here.
Updated on January 19th, 2023 by Amanda Bruce: It’s true that not all Red Rangers are created equal. Though they’re often thought of as the leaders of their team, there have been plenty of seasons in which the Pink, Yellow, Blue, or Green Rangers have acted in more of a leadership capacity than the Red Ranger in question. Despite that, the Red Rangers often get more weapons, stronger armor, and cooler zords. They also often have more knowledge of the threats of the season, like Andros in Power Rangers In Space, or more recently, Zayto in Power Rangers Dino Fury. The Red Rangers are unique among their teams, and that’s what makes them so fascinating to fans.
Aurico (Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers)
While the Red Ranger was usually seen as the team leader, when the Alien Rangers of Aquitar debuted to help the Mighty Morphin team, that wasn’t true of Aurico. Instead, another member of the team was in charge, and Aurico was largely an afterthought. He didn’t get as much development as his teammates, and he certainly wasn’t as strong as them.
While the Aquitian Rangers helped to demonstrate that the Power Rangers could have a hugely expansive universe in the early days of the show, they also had a huge weakness compared to other teams. They needed water like most of the other characters needed oxygen. A single fight would leave Aurico and his brethren dehydrated and in need of a water park. Even knowing this weakness, the group still allowed themselves to be led into areas where their access to water was cut off on a regular basis, and as an experienced Ranger, Aurico should have known better.
Rocky DeSantos (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers)
Rocky DeSantos replaced the original Red Ranger, Jason, in season two of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (1993-1996). This was a major step down, to say the least. Unlike Jason, Rocky wasn't the leader. Tommy led the team and Rocky's other teammates, all more experienced than him, often took on more important roles. He was the focus of one of the worst moments in Power Rangers history, a terrible episode focusing on Rocky, "Rocky Wants to Have Fun." That had episode showed him neglecting his Red Ranger duties to play pachinko.
During Power Rangers Zeo (1996-1997), Tommy becomes the Red Zeo Ranger and Rocky is rightfully downgraded to being the Blue Zeo Ranger. Jason also returns as the Gold Ranger and becomes the second-in-command. This leaves Rocky feeling useless, and he tries to take on the villainous King Mondo by himself, biting off more than he can chew.
The final stain on Rocky's character is his role in Turbo: A Power Rangers (1997) movie. He was injured during a practice match when he THREW HIMSELF into a spinning kick and fell out of the ring, hurting his back. The Rangers had a major battle to fight, so Rocky sent a 12-year-old to help the Rangers, since he couldn't, and he has done a lot more than Rocky ever did. His stand-in, Justin Stewart, becomes the Blue Turbo Ranger and permanently took his place on the team.
Nick Russell (Power Rangers Mystic Force)
Unlike Rocky, Nick was one of the major focuses in Power Rangers Mystic Force. The story actually overdid it, and focused on Nick a little too much. He is capable of becoming the most powerful wizard ever, yet he gives up on himself time and time again. Nick didn't even get his powers until after all the other Rangers because he did not believe in magic or in himself. He was ready to stop fighting, and his team had to convince him to keep going. It should have been the other way around. He also has difficulty trusting other people, including his teammates, and rushes into battle, acting first and thinking later.
But Nick's biggest reason for being here? During the finale, he turns evil. Of course, he goes back to the side of good, but at the end of the series, he's the only Ranger who doesn't stick around. He decides instead of being a Red Ranger and saving lives he's going to go on a cross-country motorcycle trip with his parents. But he promises to return. Someday. Despite being powerful and the season mostly focusing on him, Nick's lack of confidence in himself and his preference to act before he thinks make him one of the best Red Power Rangers.
Jayden Shiba (Power Rangers Samurai)
The Red Ranger in Power Rangers Samurai (2011-2012) and Power Rangers Super Samurai: Rise of the Bullzooka (2013), Jayden Shiba is a serious samurai raised and trained by Master Ji since childhood. He is overly concerned for his fellow Rangers, leading to several mistakes including going off to fight alone and initially not letting Antonio (the Gold Ranger) the team, all in a misguided attempt to keep them safe. Overall, he's a rather stereotypical stoic leader.
Jayden is also keeping a secret from the other Rangers, which further impacts his rating as one of the best Red Power Rangers: he is not the true Red Ranger. It was originally supposed to be his sister, Lauren, but she was forced to go into hiding. After this reveal, Jayden leaves the shrine and his friends behind, convinced he has no purpose. He does return but leaves his samurai days behind and learns to have fun. Not truly a Red Ranger, Jayden did care about his fellow Rangers. Just not enough to stick around.
Troy Burrows (Power Rangers Megaforce/Super Megaforce)
Troy Burrows is the Red Ranger in Power Rangers Megaforce (2013) and the follow-up series Power Rangers Super Megaforce (2014). He used martial arts as a way to become responsible and focused. Troy is comionate and loyal, and always roots for the underdog. These are all important traits for the leader of the Power Rangers.
So why is Troy is one of the absolute best Red Power Rangers because he's extremely boring and has little to no development over the course of the series (just like the rest of the Rangers in this season). His character is very generic and lacks much of a backstory. He often broods for the sake of brooding and shows little emotion. This just makes him so boring. Plus, his acting doesn't help matters, delivering a lot of his lines with about as much enthusiasm as someone going for a root canal. At least he sticks to being a Ranger and doesn't turn evil. But being generically brooding doesn't make him a better Ranger.
Psycho Red (Power Rangers In Space/Lost Galaxy)
The Psycho Rangers were created by Astronema to perform double duty for her. Their power was the result of siphoning from Dark Specter, allowing her to slowly drain the power of the entity that outranked her among the villains. The Rangers themselves were designed to be able to take on the In Space team in one-on-one combat, and were nearly impossible for the individual Rangers to beat. That means that the Psycho Red Ranger had all the same hand-to-hand skills as Andros.
The Red Psycho Ranger also proclaimed himself the strongest of his team more than once. That, however, wasn’t entirely true. After all, the only member of the team to survive their major encounters with the Power Rangers in both In Space and Lost Galaxy was actually the Pink Ranger. The Red Ranger also didn’t exactly exhibit any great leadership skills while he was busy telling everyone he was the best, indicating his ego might have eclipsed his actual skill.
Casey Rhodes (Power Rangers Jungle Fury)
Casey Rhodes is the leader in Power Rangers Jungle Fury (2008), despite being a new member of the Phi Zhua Academy. He becomes the Red Ranger instead of Jarrod, who had been training much longer, because he was verbally abusing another young student and Casey stood up to him. This led to their Master, Mao, making Casey the Red Ranger. Despite his noble actions, experience is also a pretty good asset to have when becoming a Red Ranger. After getting his tiger powers, he was referred to as a "cub" because of his inexperience. One of Casey's faults is his overconfidence, evidenced by taking on Dai Shi alone.
When all the Rangers undergo a test with Master Finn to get their Master Stripes, Casey is the only one who fails because he follows what the other students are doing. Not a good sign that this leader, when unsure what to do, just follows what everyone else does. Apparently, a student is someone who "follows his master and doesn't ask." Even this route that Casey manages to master is questionable, since asking questions and understanding why he's doing what the Master is doing should be rather important too. He goes on to teach this to the students he ends up teaching at Phi Zhua Academy, further spreading a rather problematic ideology. Casey does go from an inexperienced leader to a Red Ranger who doesn't get his team killed and ends up teaching others... but he is a very flawed teacher.
Zordon (2017 Power Rangers Movie)
When Lionsgate rebooted Power Rangers for a 2017 movie, they took inspiration from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, but with a few interesting changes. One of those changes was that Zordon wasn’t just a mentor for the new team of Power Rangers, but that he used to be the Red Ranger in the past himself.
It could be argued that Zordon wasn’t a great team leader since his entire team fell to the machinations of Rita Repulsa. He and Rita were, in fact, the only original Rangers to survive, and they both ended up stuck for millions of years. When Zordon has the chance to defeat her once and for all with a new team, he remains cryptic in his mentoring of them, and is harsh with their lessons instead giving them a proper explanation about what’s happening to them. He also schemes to use the Morphing Grid to bring himself back to life and take the Red Ranger abilities from Jason, despite Jason trying his best in the situation he’s been thrown into. It doesn’t inspire much confidence in Zordon for the audience.
Alex Drake (Power Rangers Time Force)
Alex is the original team leader of the Time Force before Jen and her teammates go back in time following his apparent death. The audience hears a lot about how great Alex is as a Ranger, but much of that is through Jen’s eyes, and she’s a little biased because he helped get her through training, and they started a relationship.
In truth, Alex was a very rigid leader, not wanting to deviate from official rules and regulations so as not to potentially disrupt the time stream. While that’s understandable, he didn’t take into the experience or opinions of his team when they’d been in situations that he was new to. He also had no time for his ancestor, a new addition to the team that everyone else actually trusted, his own jealousy getting in the way of his ability to work with others.
Over time, Alex certainly mellowed a bit as he’s still the Time Force leader when Jen and Wes meet again in the special “Forever Red,” but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s not great at adapting to new situations, which a Red Ranger really has to be.
Charlie (Power Rangers SPD)
In the SPD season, the Rangers are glorified police officers. That’s not to say they don’t have special skills or aren’t great fighters, but they’re definitely a different kind of Ranger. The A-Squad, however, is the elite of SPD, the best cadets that have gone through the training program. They also happen to be a little evil, and Charlie is their ring-leader.
The audience really had to give the A-Squad credit for faking their deaths on a mission and then returning to Earth to reap the rewards their position offered them. Charlie was the leader of the team, and clearly ran a pretty tight ship since the entire team bands together to turn on SPD and the planet as a whole. Charlie might have ultimately been selfish and disloyal, but she was pretty brilliant since she led her team to victory after victory and even slaughtered SPD stationed around the planet. She and her A-Squad, however, cannot beat the B-Squad that replaces them.
