He’s an active participant in the plot with a vested interest in others, an achievement that shouldn’t feel revolutionary but, in the context of how normal mainstream cinema treats autistic people, does come off as subversive.Ĭranston’s empathy for others includes recurring affectionate mentions by the character of his late father. Though stereotypes persist of all autistic people being inherently detached from others, Cranston, much like with Will Graham and the pack of pooches he watches over on Hannibal, rebukes this by constantly showing interest in his teammate’s lives and well-being. It's also wonderful to see that the screenplay by John Gatins takes great strides to emphasize how much Cranston cares about his fellow Power Rangers teammates. Rather than being another clone of the titular character of Rain Man, these little flourishes, much like the very presence of an autistic character in a superhero movie, quietly convey the truth that autistic people can be anywhere and come in any form. For starters, Cranston’s is given interests that immediately separate him from other autistic or autistic-coded figures in pop culture, chiefly his affinity for country music. In an American cinema landscape saturated with everything from raccoons to rock monsters to Chris Pratt being depicted as superheroes, Cranston is still the lone autistic superhero out there.Įven when he’s not putting on otherworldly armor to fight rock monsters and Rita Repulsa, Cranston still stands out as a noteworthy autistic character in cinema thanks to his personality traits. On the contrary, he’s a part of the titular superhero team taking on the mantle of the Blue Ranger. To boot, Cranston is not a disposable part of the plot, perhaps inhabiting a role like the younger brother to the titular superheroes. The fact that there haven’t been any other openly autistic characters in superhero movies since the release of Power Rangers reinforces just how important it is for Cranston to even just exist in this space.
Just by having Cranston play one of its lead characters, Power Rangers is establishing the concept that autistic characters can inhabit blockbuster fare. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with these molds of storytelling, but it’d be great to see prominent autistic characters in all genres like fantasy, thrillers, crime stories, and everything in between. Typically, autistic characters are limited to appearing in supporting roles in indie dramas or comedies. For starters, there’s the type of movie Cranston is inhabiting, an action-packed superhero film. Cyler) from Power Rangers is, in a pleasant surprise, a positive depiction of autism that many other films could stand to take cues from. Though that sentence may sound like the opening to an Onion piece, the character Billy Cranston ( R.J.
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