Kai Moya: Turning Ollie Akana Evil in Power Rangers Cosmic Fury

Over the years, the Power Rangers franchise has brought together unique groups of heroes to embody the power of the Morphin Grid, each character with relatable personalities that, through the struggles of daily life combined with the responsibility to protect the galaxy from evil, have had incredible journeys. One of those is that of Ollie Akana, the Dino Fury and Cosmic Fury Blue Ranger who, out of all his teammates, has had the most ever changing character development until the very end. Ollie Akana is the definition of “teenager with attitude”, which is at the heart of Power Rangers. He is the brains of the bunch, but unlike other Blue Rangers from the past, he wants to do things his way, a trait that oftentimes doesn’t define him as a true team player. Kai Moya, who played the character in the Fury series, revealed that he brought a key feature to Ollie that eventually led him to a dark path in the final(?) installment of the franchise: “I tried to bring a very confident intensity to it. I think that kind of unfolded to things that happened in Cosmic Fury. It was pretty cool how it all worked out.”

If there is one particularly visual aspect of Power Rangers, it is the characters’ physicality. Learning to move and pose like a Ranger is something that requires lots of practice and coordination–especially during the morphin sequences. Kai Moya shared, “We had to learn it in two weeks. Every episode had a full morph, and it was like three different parts you had to film to get all your angles. It’s a lot less glamorous when you’re actually filming it because you have to do it over, and over, and over again … especially in Dino Fury where we had the spin part. There were no camera effects on that … you had to spin it and make sure it landed correctly. Sometimes we did it over 20 times, and if the camera was on multiple people everyone had to get it. So, yeah, a lot less glamorous when you have to film it, but very cool when we get to show it off in person [laughs]. We got better over time, and so now it’s like second nature.”

In Cosmic Fury, Ollie Akana was brainwashed by Lord Zedd, becoming one of the most iconic evil Rangers in the Power Rangers ethos. Kai Moya stated that the decision from the filmmakers to make the character evil in the final season was pretty unanimous (after the actor’s performance in Dino Fury’s episode, Love Hate), but at the time his return to Power Rangers was uncertain due to conflicting filming schedules. Call it fate, but in the end Evil Ollie became a reality, with Moya fully returning for the final season instead of just providing ADR in post-production. He said, “It made the show so much more dynamic. If I was fully suited the whole time, I don’t think it would have had the same effect.” Moya however wished he had a chance to act in the Evil suit (no helmet), but unfortunately scheduling conflicts could not accommodate it: “I wish it worked out because that would have been super cool, but it didn’t.”

Being evil in Cosmic Fury meant that Moya didn’t work much with his castmates. The actor confessed that working with the stunt team and suit performers was the wildest part of his job: “I’m constantly by Lord Zedd … he is huge! When filming, it’s actually just me doing the scene because they’re speaking in Japanese back to me. While saying my lines, I had to stay composed in my moment, because although I know what they’re saying from the script, they’re saying it back in Japanese. It was a little wild having to get used to that, but it worked out.”

Speaking of Lord Zedd, one of the most intriguing parts of Evil Ollie is his relationship with the Emperor of Evil. Over the course of Dino Fury, nothing about Ollie’s father was ever mentioned–with Dr. Lani Akana taking on both parental figures. In Cosmic Fury, Lord Zedd takes Ollie under his mantle, teaching him lessons and encouraging him after his failure to defeat the Power Rangers who were once his friends–playing a sort of father figure for the spellbound hero. Kai Moya said, “You know, it’s funny, it did feel like that, but it wasn’t the intention!”

Probably one of the most intense moments from Evil Ollie is his interaction with his girlfriend, Amelia Jones. His love for her and the evil spell are a chemical explosion, as every opportunity Ollie has to prove his loyalty to Zedd is through damaging his relationship with Amelia. Kai Moya remembered one of his favorite fight scenes in Cosmic Fury: “I was actually morphed, so I provided voice-over for the scene. It was the first time that I morphed into the Evil Ollie suit, and then I saw that Amelia was in red and lost it! Our weapons clashed. We’re looking at each other, and I said, ‘Red doesn’t suit you!’ and she replied, ‘Bitter isn’t a good color on you!’ It was a nice intense moment of trying to win the fight. I think that was my favorite … It was cool.”

In the end, Lord Zedd’s evil spell on Ollie was broken, and he finally joins the Power Rangers to ultimately win the cosmic battle. However, there are still unknowns about this fascinating character: Did the spell actually work, or is Ollie truly evil? His duality of light and dark will most likely never be answered, but Moya teased, “If there was another season, there were a lot of cool ideas that could have happened with that where there was even more of a question on if he was really brainwashed or not.”

Kai Moya’s Power Rangers journey might be over, but his passion for acting never stopped: “I miss doing this action kind of show. That is my goal … I want to be an action star. I’m a competitive taekwondo martial artist; every month I usually enter a tournament. I’m a real true martial artist and actor trying to blend the two, like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and all the other legends.” Thanks to his exceptional range of skills, Moya will be forever remembered as one of the most fascinating and badass Rangers of all time. Make sure to follow his career journey (beyond Power Rangers) on Instagram!