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It was October 28, 1994, and I was weeks away from my ninth birthday. I raced home from school, eager to watch the latest episode of my favorite show, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The episode was called ‘Zedd’s Monster Mash,’ and to me it was another entertaining Power Rangers adventure. However, unbeknownst to me and other children watching around the world, there was more to this episode than met the eye.

This was the first Power Rangers episode without Austin St. John, Walter Emanuel Jones, and Thuy Trang, the original Red, Black, and Yellow Ranger. The episode used careful editing, archive footage, and imitation voice actors to hide the departure of the actors. Looking back at the episode as an adult, it’s amazing that I was fooled. It’s even more stunning when you realize this went on for 7 more episodes before their characters were written off. The series just pretended the characters were still there, despite the fact that the actors had left the show.

Austin, Walter, and Thuy left the series over contract disputes. The story has been partially told in interviews over the years, but recently Walter and Austin broke their silence in a video produced exclusively for Fanward.

“He and I got to talking. We realized that while each of us has talked about why we left the show, we had never really done it in depth, and not together,” Austin said. “I know a lot of our fans were very disappointed when we left the show. We were disappointed. We didn’t want to leave. We wanted to be there. We wanted to do the movie. We earned this movie.”

While Mighty Morphin Power Rangers brought in over $1 billion annually, the actors were underpaid. The show wasn’t a union production, which made things difficult for the cast and crew.

“We’re having a great time, but we know it’s not fair. We know it should be union. We know things should be better for us than they are,” Walter began. “Then they came to us and said, ‘Guys, we have the most exciting news. 20^th Century Fox is going to do a movie about Power Rangers. They want to use all of you guys, and we’ve signed contracts already with all you guys to be in the movie. It’s going to be amazing. There’s going to be new costumes, there’s a big budget. It’s going to be amazing,’ And we’re like, ‘Alright, that sounds great.’ And then we get the contract.”

“It was a joke,” Austin said. He noted that it locked them in for three films, and didn’t give them any room to negotiate for higher wages down the line. As it was, the actors were making more money in a single weekend signing autographs at car shows than they did for filming an entire season of the show.

“We kind of got together and we said this contract’s not really fair,” Walter recalled. “The least it should be is it should be union. We’re not asking to be millionaires. We’re not saying treat us special, but treat us like a professional actor, which we are at this point with 85 episodes under our belt.”

“We all kind of get together to talk about it. And we’re like, ‘I think we should get a lawyer, and have a lawyer look at the contract. As a group we should go and renegotiate the contract,’” Walter continued.

The actors lawyered up and began negotiating with the studio. At the time there were six Rangers in the main cast, but Jason David Frank, David Yost, and Amy Jo Johnson didn’t follow the same path Austin, Walter, and Thuy did.

“This is the part that gets me. We agreed that we were going to stick together as a unit. We were going to fight this together,” Austin said. “That didn’t happen,” Walter added. “You’re very nice about this,” Austin noted.

“Different people for their different reasons changed their mind,” Walter continued. “Obviously that would be Amy Jo, David Yost, and Jason Frank. And all of them had their own reasons for deciding, ‘Aw, we really don’t want to renegotiate the contract after all. We’re just going to grin and bear it.’ But we wanted to stand up for ourselves, because we felt like we were being bullied, and we felt like we deserved more, and we earned the right to be treated like professional actors. Even though they chose not to be part of it anymore, we decided to just keep running with it.”

While the original cast has remained friends, Austin and Walter still wish they had stuck together in their fight against the studio. “I’m really disappointed that the other three guys chose not to go with us, but we decided to stay the course. In the process what happened, as we were trying to renegotiate the contract, lots of things were said. Lots of things were said on both sides. Lawyers were going back and forth,” Walter said.

“There was a little more money thrown on the table in the process, but it was still a joke,” Austin revealed. “The other three that stayed were offered more to stay, and they had auditions for three new Rangers,” Walter said.

“They told us that they were going to start casting for the other Rangers. We had reached a point where negotiations were just crumbling. We knew the other guys had cut a side deal, and we knew they were going to cast the other roles,” Austin recalled.

Saban cast Steve Cardenas, Johnny Yong Bosch, and Karen Ashley as the new Red, Black, and Yellow Rangers. Years after leaving the series, Tuy Trang passed away after a deadly car crash in 2001.

While the contract disputes led to the original Rangers departing, the actors are glad they stood their ground. “I’m proud of that. I know Thuy was,” Austin said. “It was scary. I have to say, it was one of the most scariest things I’ve ever done. Here we are on this hit show we created. I definitely don’t want to leave,” Walter added.

While the experience wasn’t easy, Walter and Austin have no regrets. “Here we are almost 30 years later and stronger for it. And our fans, you guys are still with us, and we appreciate you.” Walter said. “Much love. I’ll never let that go,” Austin added.

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Here's how to watch the Power Rangers TV series and movies in order.