Fans have waited for six months but the final half of Power Rangers Dino Fury‘s second season is finally here and has exceeded all expectations. All of the plot lines that were slowly introduced throughout the show’s run came to immensely satisfying resolutions and we were even thrown a few curve balls along the way. At the center of some of the biggest stories of the season were Red Ranger Zayto (Russell Curry) and Gold Ranger Aiyon (Jordan Fite.) The two alien characters struggled with the destruction of their home planet, a deadly new power-up, and the discovery that not all of their people were dead. We sat down with the two to discuss the biggest moments of the season and what’s to come when they return for next seasons Power Rangers Cosmic Fury. DEN OF GEEK: Both of your characters have two very distinct sides. Zayto has his goofy misunderstandings of Earth but then has these incredibly tragic scenes dealing with the loss of everyone he ever knew. Aiyon’s cocky and full of himself, he could be a dick, but he’s so likable. What’s it like playing both sides of your characters and integrating them together? RUSSELL CURRY: That’s how people are. Nobody’s just one thing, right? As people we have this amazing range of experiences. People surprise you all the time. I like that we have some depth to these characters and they’re not one dimensional. Zayto and Aiyon are both Rafkonians, an alien species. Did you both ever discuss any unique characteristics you wanted to give that species? Body movements, speech patters, etc? CURRY: (To Fite) Did we do too much about Rafkon in general? I know we did stuff about the two of us specifically. I don’t think we went too far outside of what was actually in the script. We have a lot of shared lore about places we’ve been and experiences we had together and our experiences as knights. A lot of what was decided as far as our aliveness was really set up in the script for us for the most part. FITE: If it was something in a script, we just added our little two sets to it on the outside. We had our handshakes and things like that. We have our our little saying. “It’s the-” You mentioned lore about characters. Was that information that was also given in the scripts or was there more backstory the two of you came up with that your characters had gone through? CURRY: Mostly scripted stuff. A lot of our time spent developing these characters was bonding as individuals. Then we kind of layered the lore of the show on top of that. Russell, what was it like working with that giant T-Rex Zord costume that was supposed to represent a transformed Izzy? CURRY: It was really cool. Shout out to our folks who had to operate it. It was really heavy and really hot to be inside of that thing. It was actually a masterful job because there was so much body language that was imbued into that, that was trying to mimic an actual person. The mouth moves and everything like that. It was a heck of a job at that our folks were doing to make that come to life. It was really, really fun and pretty funny sometimes, not going to lie. The way it turned out was awesome. Jordan, everyone loves Aiyon in the show. One of my favorite little moments in season 1 was when Aiyon was hogging all the glory there’s a random guy in the crowd who mentions how cute the gold Ranger is. It may have seemed small but that minor character was the first confirmed male gay character in the Power Rangers franchise. What was it like to be on the receiving end of that, even if you only knew about it after you saw the final episode? It was good because that’s our thing. Dino Fury is a season of firsts. I was like, “let’s do it. We’re here. We’re in this thing!” Very excited about that add-on so much. To the outside world that’s looking and the Ranger fans that appreciate those kind of moments, we’re here to make the fans happy. In this second half of season two which just dropped on Netflix, both of you had a huge scene where your characters’ home planet is destroyed. Even though you weren’t on set and were just doing voice over, what’s it like to get into the mindset for an intense scene like that? CURRY: As an actor, I need to find an analogous situation that Russell would go through to have him feel this way. I just brought myself to that place and that was the best I could do. On one level I’m really sad that it was shot with the helmeted suit actor there. Masaaki Nitta, our Red Ranger who was incredible, did such a beautiful job of of expressing that through his body. It’s sort of weird they do what they do and then we get to see it later and match it. We also have to find the context of what’s happening in the scene and bring it all together. It’s this cool, interesting process that doesn’t happen all the time in other shows. It was one of those things where I said, “I’m going to do the absolute best I can to be as truthful as possible in this moment and hope that it translates the way it needs to.” FITE: That’s perfectly said, Russell, I don’t think I can add too much to that. But I took that moment to really just soak in, especially going into ADR. How can I make this real? Let’s make this real. That was the whole concept. Me, before you even going into ADR, how can I make this real? I’ll put my best foot forward and I hope everyone watching was able to see that. CURRY: No, no alternate endings This isn’t Chrono Trigger for all my nerds. That was how it was scripted. That was the plan from the beginning or at least from the time that they locked the script. When I found out I was pretty blown away. We were always going to make sure Zayto was around in some way as far as I know. Maybe (executive producer) Simon Bennett might have more to talk about it but that’s how it was always presented to me. FITE: Same. It was presented to me the same way it was presented to him. He had his individual meeting with Simon. That was the Russell Show. That was for Russell. You both did a lot of amazing work this season and you have more to come in Cosmic Fury, as the entire main cast is returning. What do you expect to come from Cosmic Fury? Any idea where your characters might be heading? Where would you like to see them go? FITE: Well, in life in general, the only way to go is up. I hope everyone’s character goes up. I don’t want to say too much but I feel like our characters are going to keep developing and there’s going to be a continuation, hopefully. I’m going to stop talking there because I don’t want to say anything. But! Season two, part two. Amazing! Beautiful ending, lots of character development as well. Storyline is going to have you on the edge of your seat and it’s just going to be amazing. I can’t wait to hear everyone’s feedback about it. This is the one I’m hyped about because everyone is getting their answers. Something that’s been overlooked when fans talk about Dino Fury is that you shot it at the height of the pandemic in 2020. What was that like, shooting in New Zealand which handled the pandemic very differently from other parts of the world? Plus, you’re going back there to shoot Cosmic Fury so you’ll be going back in a completely different world. Do you think that’ll change the experience? CURRY: I consider our cast that went to New Zealand five of the luckiest people in the entire world at that time. Not only are we doing a dream job, but we’re doing it in the safest place on the planet. When we came out of the two weeks of isolation, we were able to just live a pretty much normal life in New Zealand. That was an extremely huge privilege that I tried my best not to take for granted because I knew what it was like back home. I knew what people were dealing with everywhere else. It was really an honor. At first going and doing things that other people couldn’t, I felt a little guilty for. Then I said to myself, “I’m going to do these for the people who can’t do it. Whether or not that was the right thing to do it helped me sleep at night, I’ll say that much. But going back in the atmosphere we have now? It’s not going to be too much different. I feel really, really grateful for that. FITE: It was new for me as well going over there. Thankful that no one in my family or anybody I knew suffered from COVID. I was leaving (in 2020) where it was terrible here in the United States, but to go somewhere where you were kinda free. I want to thank the country of New Zealand for settling everyone down. I know it’s not as big as the U.S., so it’s much easier, but I’m glad that they went on their lockdown before we got there. We were the luckiest people. It was the perfect timing. Right before we got over there they had come off a three to four month lockdown. When we got there they lifted the lockdown. Out of the whole time we were filming we went on a three day lockdown and a seven day lockdown. That was really it. That was the entire time we were there. Then once we back from filming both seasons? They went on another lockdown because it had got bad in New Zealand. It was just perfect timing and I’m hoping for the same thing this time. FITE: Back here at home, I go to different elementary schools, middle schools, and I talk to kids and I see how they see us. We’re their superheroes. When they actually get to see one it’s amazing. We don’t know what these kids go through at home. They can go through the most things at home and when they see us? Their day is brightened up. Their life is changed. To see that and for me to be put in a position to be looked up as that, it’s a great feeling. It’s a great feeling to see smiles on these kids faces after they see us. I’m very appreciative of it. The kids, that’s the best part about it and being their role model. CURRY: I couldn’t have said it better myself. I visited Kainalu (Kai Moya, Ollie in Power Rangers Dino Fury) in Hawaii for a few days and there were multiple times when were just out doing things together that parents would come up to us and say, “are you guys the Power Rangers? Is it okay if we get a picture because our kid’s really shy but he loves the show.” Those kind of moments are always really fun. We get to talk to them and ask them what their favorite part of the show is and this and that. It takes me back to being that person and being that kid. How would I want to interact with my heroes on TV? It’s so much fun and it’s very humbling. It’s so cool though.
