Trivia / Power Rangers: Dino Thunder

• The Cast Showoff: Emma Lahana (Kira's actress) is a singer with several songs. She and her actual band get to show off more than a few times throughout the season.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Amit Bhaumik, lead writer of "Forever Red", which was setting Tommy up to be the heir to Zordon in the defunct Hexagon season, has expressed his distaste for how clumsily Tommy was brought back, stating and implying on multiple occasions that transforming legendary Power Ranger and leader "Tommy Oliver" into reclusive paleontologist "Dr. Oliver", especially given the short span of time between the end of Power Rangers Wild Force and the beginning of Dino Thunder, made little sense for his character.
  • James Napier (Conner) seems to consider his time on the show as this. After returning for the Power Rangers S.P.D. teamup, he has never even vaguely mentioned his connection with the franchise, and it's been said that he only took the role to use the money towards a career in filmmaking, which he followed through with, even becoming a success in his home country with his 2015 film The Dark Horse. He is also one of the few Power Rangers actors to not attend a single Fan Convention; as of 2023, he seems to be the most blatant case of old shame in the entire series (beating out Danny Slavin, who seemed to have warmed up in later years), unless he himself speaks on the matter.
  • Emma Lahana (Kira) was open about her time on the show for a while and often engaged with fans, but has become significantly more sour regarding it over the past several years, expressing genuine annoyance at constantly being called "Kira" instead of her real name to the point of directly asking people to stop doing it, as well as more or less regarding her tenure as a stepping stone to bigger things. As of 2023, she's kept her distance.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: The below-mentioned "Written-In Infirmity" (namely Tommy when he was stuck in his Ranger and invisible forms) saw Jason David Frank voice Tommy while he was with his family in America.
• Creator's Favorite: Jeffrey Parazzo named "Bully for Ethan" as one of his favourite episodes.
• Dawson Casting: Averted with Kira and Ethan, who were played by 19-year-olds Kevin Duhaney and Emma Lahana. Played straight with Conner and Trent, who were played by 21-year-old James Napier and 25-year-old Jeffrey Parazzo.
• Executive Meddling: According to an interview with Jeffrey Parazzo, Kira and Trent's relationship was actually going to go somewhere and have a payoff down the line, but thanks to Disney's anti-romance policies it was quietly dropped as the series went on (apparently it got so bad that Kira and Trent were forbidden from having any sort of bodily contact). He also suggests that the first draft of Dino Thunder was somewhat different from what it ended up as, but gave no specifics.
• I Am Not Spock: Emma Lahana has expressed annoyance at people constantly conflating her with her character, and addressing her as "Kira" instead of using her real name.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • The 500th episode, "Legacy of Power".
  • Also, "Fighting Spirit" aired on the 11th anniversary of the show's premiere.
• Missing Episode: Not an episode, but there's a little bit of footage that most Dino Thunder fans would kill to see. On the day they were filming the video for Kira's song "Patiently," they were also filming some scenes with Mesogog. Latham Gaines says that the video filming ran long, so he's sitting around bored... until he had an idea. Somewhere, sitting on a dusty archive shelf, is footage of Gaines, in full Mesogog makeup, singing Kira's song "Patiently," and according to him, he was going full Celine Dion on the whole thing.
• Promoted Fanboy: Kevin Duhaney has mentioned on occasion that he was a fan of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers as a kid, never missing an episode. When he first approached Jason David Frank, he was very excited to meet him.
• Prop Recycling: The Tyrannodrones are heavily modified Stingwinger costumes.
• Throw It In!: According to this interview, the scene in the teamup with Ninja Storm, with Rangers from both teams racing toward the battlefield, turned at some point into an actual race between the actors of each season.
• Toyline-Exclusive Character: The toyline gave the Dino Thunder team an actual sixth ranger; the Phantom Ranger (not to be confused with the character of the same name from Turbo). His body parts came with the figures of the main Rangers, giving you an incentive to collect them all.
• Troubled Production: The series had it better than others, but Jason David Frank wanting to spend some time back with his family and run his martial arts school in the United States forced them to create a scenario where Tommy is trapped in his morphed state, then invisible. Production also had to change course when Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger's apparent Sixth Ranger, AbareMax, turned out to be a Super Mode for the Red Ranger instead of giving the powers to Devin as reportedly planned.
• What Could Have Been: Enough for its own page.
• Word of God:
  • The Zeo Christmas Episode showed Tommy and Katherine would be married in the future, but her not appearing in this season prompted fans to question that outcome (not that there hadn't been questioning for years prior to that, of course). When asked about this, though, Doug Sloan stated that Tommy and Kat getting married was still in-continuity. The canon comic "Soul of the Dragon", set during the S.P.D. era, eventually showed them married, and confirmed Kat as the mother of Tommy's son J.J. (who's still a kid during the events of the Ninja Super Steel season). Tommy and Kat being married is confirmed in-show during the 30th anniversary special Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, when Kat name drops JJ (away at a karate camp) and gives other indications that she and Tommy are married.
  • While not officially stated in the show proper, Douglas Sloan has stated that Hayley has the last name "Ziktor"; a Shout-Out to VR Troopers's Big Bad Karl Ziktor/Grimlord.
• Written-In Infirmity: Jason David Frank couldn't be on set for the full season, so they worked around it by first "fossilizing" Dr. O in amber (at the end of "White Thunder, pt. 3"), then keeping him stuck in his Ranger suit (at the end of "Leader of the Whack", for 10 episodes), then turning him invisible (in "Disappearing Act") - for a total of 13 episodes (he came back in "Fighting Spirit").
• You Look Familiar:
  • Katrina Devine, who was Marah in Ninja Storm and Cassidy in Dino Thunder. Lampshaded in the crossover:
    Both: That girl was so stunning! But I am so much prettier!
  • James Napier as Conner in Dino Thunder and wannabe ninja Eric in the finale of Ninja Storm. Lampshaded in "Legacy of Power", when Conner is the one who initially brings up Ninja Storm, and explains that he has a twin brother who briefly enrolled at the Wind Ninja Academy before dropping out. Strangely, the Ninja Rangers don't spot the resemblance.
  • Ismay Johnston (Hayley) had a minor role as a TV announcer in Ninja Storm bringing the total number of Ninja Storm actors now in Dino Thunder up to three.

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