Early in Bryan Cranston‘s career, it wasn’t uncommon for the future Breaking Bad star to have a few voiceover roles in addition to his live-action parts. He voiced two of the monsters in the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series, but he wasn’t immediately interested in returning to the franchise in the upcoming Power Rangers reboot film. In a new interview, Cranston recently revealed what it took to bring him back.

While speaking with IGN, Cranston recalled his first impression about the reboot. “I thought, ‘Power Rangers? It’s kind of the [1960s] Batman television show – Pow! Zing! Whap!’ And I had a phone call with the director [Dean Israelite] and he said, ‘Think of it this way… Like Batman came from TV and became a completely different animal in the movies, so too is it here. We’re going to take this and revamp it and it’s going to be grounded and real.’ And I thought ‘Okay, with that, let me read it.’ I read it and went ‘You’re right,’ The kids sound like real kids and not everyone is this great athlete and everything is working out. I thought, ‘This might be a nice bookend to what I was doing before,’ since I started out doing voices.”

The report also touched upon Cranston’s 35 year friendship with Haim Saban, the producer of Power Rangers, who was said to have named the original Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston, in Cranston’s honor. In fact, it was Saban himself who approached Cranston about appearing in the new film.

Within the reboot film, Cranston will portray Zordon, the Power Rangers’ mentor and the original Red Ranger. Cranston briefly described his take on Zordon as “a frustrated mentor of these kids,” before adding that some of the new Rangers aren’t taking their new powers and responsibilities very seriously. “And yet, you’re a mentor,” added Cranston. “It’s almost like being a coach. You want to break down the individuality of them so that they can grow as a team.”

The new Power Rangers will be released on March 24.

Are you eager to see Cranston as the new Zordon in Power Rangers? Let us know in the comment section below!

Image: AMC

Here’s our best look at Cranston/Zordon so far: