Elizabeth Banks is Rita Repulsa in ‘Power Rangers’ Movie

Elizabeth_Banks_2012_Shankbone_2“Power Rangers” movie has found its evil alien, Rita Repulsa, in the person of Elizabeth Banks.

The actress joins other Power Rangers already cast for the reboot of the 90s kid show, such as Becky G (who will play Yellow Ranger) , R.J. Cyler (who is the Blue Ranger), Dacre Montgomery (playing the Red Ranger), Ludi Lin (who is the Black Ranger) and Naomi Scott (playing the Pink Ranger).

The confirmation was made in the Power Rangers Instagram account, where a photo of the actress was posted and captioned, “Big news! @ElizabethBanks joins the cast of @PowerRangersMovie as the villainous #RitaRepulsa. Let the countdown to 2017 begin!”

Variety  reported that the Dean Israelite has been tapped by Lionsgate to direct the movie with Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama handling the script.

“Power Rangers” is about a group of kids from high school who have gained alien powers that they use to save the world. The show first ran as a kids TV series in 1993 and then received a movie adaptation, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie,” in 1995.

TV Guide  reported that Rita Repulsa was portrated by a Japanese actress in the original series, with the same look and quirks as that of Effie Trinket from “The Hunger Games,” which incidentally, Banks also played.

“Power Rangers” is set to debut in theaters on March 24, 2017.