Published Aug 27, 2026, 10:25 PM EDT
Dani Kessel Odom (they/them) is an autistic lead writer and TV critic who covers sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and Pluribus, fantasy shows like The Magicians and Percy Jackson, and horror of all kinds. They also cover Marvel and DC TV shows and movies, with a robust knowledge of comic books. Their TV reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.
Dani is also part of ScreenRant's books team, using their fiction writing and literature studies as the backbone for their book analyses.
They have covered events, such as the Denver Fan Expo. Professionals in the field, such as Damien Leone and Lucy Hale, have shared their articles. Their review of Ponies was quoted in the show's TV trailer.
In university, they majored in English Writing with a minor in psychology. They have always had a passion for analyzing TV and movies, even taking filmography and scriptwriting classes in university. They also studied and participated in onstage and onscreen acting extensively from the ages of 7 to 18.
Aside from working at Screen Rant, Dani has worked as a freelance editor and writer over the past decade, often in a ghostwriting capacity.
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After years of anticipation, Legend of the White Dragon is finally hitting the big screen, bringing the late Jason David Frank's final role to audiences.
Legend of the White Dragon has been seven years in the making, and fans will have the opportunity to experience it on the big screen like Frank always wanted. The idea for the tokusatsu-inspired superhero movie emerged after Jason David Frank and Aaron Schoenke worked together on Superpower Beat Down. The movie explores regrets and redemptions for Erik Reed, a former superhero who went by the name The White Dragon.
Ahead of Legend of the White Dragon’s theatrical release, I spoke, on behalf of ScreenRant, with co-creator/director/star Aaron Schoenke, as well as cast members David Ramsey, Jason Faunt, Rachele Brooke Smith, and Mark Dacascos about their experiences filming the movie and the collaborative environment fostered by the production company Bat in the Sun.
ScreenRant: In Legend of the White Dragon, you two are kind of a dynamic duo. You bounce off each other quite a bit, and I'm sure you get asked a lot to describe your own characters, so I am curious: how would you guys describe each other's characters?
Rachel Brooke Smith: Oh, that's so great. Faunt, I think you should go first on this.
Jason Faunt: Yeah. I mean, I think for Iris it's the—I'm trying to think of what I can't spoil...I think what's kind of cool is that there's this special relationship, if I can put it that way, that Iris and Connor have that we kind of learn going into the movie. That keeps the relationship very unique. But I think Iris is someone very, very focused. Very, very driven. Relationships take a back seat to the mission, and I think that that's been one of the things. And again, it's been so long, and that's been kind of her thing. She's just very driven by the mission, by her success, and relationships taking a back seat. And I think that's kind of her M.O. in this. And that's where she and Connor have this love-hate relationship. And that's how I feel about them.
Rachel Brooke Smith: Yeah, that's that's that's good. Yeah, we've talked a lot about how we had created kind of organically. We found something between our characters that wasn't really even initially in the script. It was one of our favorite things. My favorite things were the relationship that JDF, Faunt, and I all had off-screen and all the different audio messages that we sent, and all the time that we spent really creating these full characters and backstories, and finding a lot of nuances that hopefully really are fun and apparent for fans to watch. And I would say, yeah, Connor, as opposed to Iris, he was like, "I gotta get the mission done." Everything else is like focused on that. And where part of the mission is relationship-based, it's just not necessarily Connor and Iris-based. And so, from Connor's perspective, he's like, "What the heck is she doing?" And so, I think Connor, yeah, has a really big heart and really cares about the people and wants to fight for the people in his life, sometimes to a fault. And yeah, I think that's what I'd say.
Jason Faunt: I think Connor liked Iris a little more than Iris liked Connor. I think I'm chasing Iris.
Rachele Brooke Smith: Or she just has guarded because she doesn't want to get hurt again? Yeah, I think she cares just as much about him. But yeah, I think is scared. I think she's scared to open her heart again because she's like, I can achieve success. I can do the mission. I can save the people I need to save. But, we all know, when you get hurt, especially in love, it's really hard to open your heart up again.
Mark Dacascos & Aaron Schoenke On The Influence Of Superheroes & Tokusatsu
ScreenRant: Aaron, Tokusatsu is a big influence on the project. What movies or TV shows, besides Power Rangers, influenced the Legend of the White Dragon?
Aaron Schoenke: Oh gosh, I mean, There's so much that's derived from different parts of the superhero science fiction culture. I know that, like Old Man Logan, or lots of the comics, but that Logan would be the movie. You know, it really had a big effect on Jason, what he wanted to do, and the love for even Star Wars, and a little bit of Dragon Ball Z. And just it borrows from a lot of different fandoms. Keep that familiarity whilst making it something new and unique. So there's a lot I want to say. There's even some Batman and Superman in there in terms of just the psychological moral pillars. That's where they come from, and you want to build out these characters that you feel for and agree with and disagree with, the heroes and the villains. To see where they're going to go and how they're going to find resolve that, to me, is always the most interesting thing about all superheroes—is the morals and lessons and what we can take away from it. What did you learn, and how do you, going forward, want to be a better person because of that? Like I said, when I watched the first Superman movie, Christopher Reeve...You watch that, and you're like, man, I'm inspired to be a better person. There were things about the way that he handled it that I should apply to my own life.
ScreenRant: [Mark], you appeared in the Bio Man pilot, which kind of set the stage for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which obviously the Power Rangers influenced Legend of the White Dragon. So, how does it feel to have popularized or helped popularize Tokusatsu in the United States?
Mark Dacascos: You know, it's surreal. I suppose if you live long enough, you find it out even more so that things are all connected because—Bio Man. I was Red Ranger and Bio Man, and I think when they took the pilot to the TV convention or something in Vegas, Saban Productions received very positive reviews, but at that time there was no precedent. Nobody had done any shows like that, and nobody was willing to take a chance on it. Yeah. So it didn't get picked up as a pilot, and then cut to maybe two or three years later, they tried again, and by that time, anime and manga had built up a little bit of a swell, and [Mighty Morphin Power Rangers] got picked up, and then it's been this huge thing ever since. So then to come back around and be invited by Jason David Frank and the Schoenkes to be a part of this show was like, ‘Wow, I remember way back when I was in my 20s,’ and it was surreal. And I have to say, I'm so grateful because I noticed when Jason invited me to the show, I have three kids, and the two boys are huge Power Ranger fans, especially the eldest. And when I told him that Jason David Frank invited me to be a part of his movie, my son Makoa…He got so emotional, so happy, so excited. And that's what I've noticed about this project, probably more than anything I've ever done in my life: the joy and excitement that it brings to people...
David Ramsey On The Differences Between The Arrowverse & Legend of The White Dragon
ScreenRant: Do we get any [references to] Arrow?
David Ramsey: You get me. You get a bit of a misdirect for my brand, specifically. I mean, you kind of go “Okay, that's what—we know what David Ramsey's doing,” but maybe you don't."
ScreenRant: That's very exciting...What are the differences that you see between the Arrowverse and Legend of the White Dragon?
David Ramsey: Well, obviously, they're, in some ways, they're different, but in many ways they're the same. For me, it's always leadership, right? I mean, there in the Arrowverse, you had Greg Berlanti, who who was just brilliant, and and here we had Jason and Aaron, who are, in my estimation, equally as brilliant, and to be able to go from that universe, which was handled so well for a decade, and to now kind of come over to the Bat in the Sun universe, it's just been been great. But honestly, it was it was really Jason's energy that brought me to this, and I cannot overstate that. I met Jason at a Comic Con, and we knew some of the same people as martial artists. We kind of connected on that level, but he was just a force of nature, right? And he spoke about this project over time and said, "Hey, I really want to do something. I really want to say something in this project. I want people to see me. I want to be true to my brand, but I also want to show off my chops! And that just spoke to me as an artist, right? That you know, you can kind of feel pigeonholed in some of the things you do, and you want to be true to that kind of source and that fandom, but you also want to spread and stretch as an artist. And he, first of all, he did that. I think he's brilliant in the movie. I think he's fantastic. He jumps off the screen as he does, but that spoke to me. So the direct answer to you to that question is leadership. It always starts from the top, and for this one, it was Jason and Aaron.
Legend Of The White Dragon's Cast On Stunts & Fight Choreography
ScreenRant: Rachel, you have an extensive background in dance and in athletics. How did that kind of contribute to your role here?
Rachele Brooke Smith: Oh gosh, I mean everything. Yeah, I grew up a very competitive gymnast that led into a really crazy thing that happened to me. I was going through a pretty traumatic time. I saw a big dance movie that changed my life as a little girl, and that was the film that made me want to act and dance. And everyone told me I was crazy, and who am I to? I was just a scared, insecure little girl from Phoenix, Arizona, with no ties to the entertainment industry. And I have a crazy story of actually landing the lead role in the sequel to that film six years after I saw it. And since then, I speak a lot about all the twists and turns and ups and downs and things that happened to me that I thought were some of the worst things that ever happened to me that ended up being some of the best things that ever happened to me.
That helped me get that skill set and that drive and everything that I had to create within myself to be able to land that role and so many other roles since then, and dance really bled into break dancing and that bled into fighting and martial arts, and so, it was always this dream of mine to be able to play really strong, badass female characters who both had heart, but also were really able to do really badass cool stuff. And there's something about my soul that just loves anything to do with movement and athleticism, and for lack of better terms, like badassery.
Like on set, in any film I've done, especially on this film, there were certain things where—I don't know if you remember this Faunt, but there was a day where we were shooting at night, all night long, and we're in our suits, and they're really intense. And we have these helmets on, and we're having these action scenes, right? But, something about the way that the lights were hitting my eyes was blinding me, so I couldn't see. But we were moving so fast that we had to get the shot. But I literally had to climb down this whole tunnel, and run through the thing, and like grab thought and do these action scenes. I couldn't see anything, and so the whole time I literally was like, "This is what you train for. Remember your training. You know what I mean? Like I was having that internal dialog of, "Yeah, I mean, and that part of me just like lights up for whatever reason. Like I just get such an adrenaline rushes or high from from those kinds of challenging physical things, and so, yeah. Kind of long story short, it that background is kind of everything for me.
ScreenRant: "[Mark], I don't know if this is something you can share, but do you get to show off your martial arts background? Because I know you do have one."
Mark: Dacascos: That's a good question, Dani. We'll just have to see.
ScreenRant: Aaron, you collaborated with Jason David Frank on Superpower Beat Down. That's obviously what made fans really excited about the movie. Are there any elements that carry over from the previous project to this movie?
Aaron Schoenke: Oh, for sure. Yeah, I mean, me and Jason worked on 10 other projects together, and you just kind of know how to collab and where you can, you know, go and what you can expect of each other and how you can push each other, and you can also reference. Hey, remember when we did that one thing? Let's make sure to incorporate here, but let's level it up. Let's do the thing that we couldn't do and put it in here. You know. And after working together for 10 years, you have all these discussions and things that you just kind of put aside a little pin in it that you're able to bring out and put into this film and make sure that the fight scenes just feel so much more visceral because there's so much more story behind them now. There's all this character development, and the stakes are so much higher, which is just wonderful to take such epic fight choreography and pair it with, I think, just great storytelling and character motivation.
Legend Of The White Dragon Was Created In A Fun & Collaborative Environment
ScreenRant: What is your favorite behind-the-scenes moment from filming Legend of the White Dragon?
David Ramsey: Yeah, for me, Dani, it was—I go back to your original question. This begins at the top. And Aaron and Jason really brought an atmosphere of just creativity, right? How do we—and that goes back to your first question to you was ‘How does it relate kind of to the Arrow?’ It was the same sort of thing, right? How do we make this good? How do we make it better? We're all been hired. We all have talents. And instead of stifling the talent with a very rigid vision—and you have to be true to the vision. But how does each person kind of enhance that vision and contribute to that vision? And we were all dialed in, right? To Aaron's point about the acting, when we had a scene, we just were like, ‘Was this right? Can we tweak this? Can we tweak that?’ And you don't always find that right because on sets, as we all know. And then it was the stuff with Jason that was always fun for me behind the scenes. Jason's a fighter. I mean, mentally, spiritually, he's a fighter, and physically, he's a fighter. So it was, we got to do some hand-to-hand combat, play around, and talk about the future of what we could do together. So it was a really, really creative and elevated set creatively, and after you work in this business for a while, you don't have that all the time. So, at every level, whether it's an independent or a studio, it's when you get to be creative and your creativity is appreciated. It feels great.
Mark Dacascos: Yeah, I was only on set for three days, but it felt like a whole lifetime because we're playing those characters, and because it's a short amount of time, you're doing a lot of work. But I don't know if it's for one particular moment, but it's the whole thing from me getting on the set and, for the first time ever, seeing Jason David Frank in person. He invited my son and me to do one of his podcasts, so we were on his podcast. Jason and I DM'd each other, and we called. But we've only seen each other in person three days. What really hit me was how kind he was. Yeah, how kind, and sometimes when you meet people for the first time, just for security and confidence, we put up a little veneer, a little glass window in between. And he felt so. He was just so present that it wasn't like he had to work through the first half hour or hour I'd just come on set. He was so welcoming, and kind, and collaborative. It was just like we'd known each other for a long time, in spite of the fact that, to this day, I've only seen him three days in person. But I still have this long—I kept everything of our text messaging back and forth over the years.
ScreenRant: That must be really special.
Mark Dacascos: Very special, very special, and you know, of course, you know, Jason, before he invited me to his movie, I told him that my sons were fans, especially Makoa, and he sent Makoa all this paraphernalia, you know, from him and Power Rangers, and you know he was just a kind soul. So I don't have one particular moment. It was the whole three days of just kindness, talent—creative, collaborative. It was just a fantastic adventure.
About Legend of the White Dragon
"Power Rangers stars Jason David Frank, Jason Faunt, Cerina Vincent, and Ciara Hanna reunite in a heroic new adventure. Three years after hiding his White Dragon alias, Erik Reed (Frank) emerges from the shadows to reclaim his stolen identity and clear his name. But as he seeks to reunite with his secret family, a mysterious villain known as Dragon Prime rises with a relentless vendetta to see the White Dragon fall for good."
Legend of the White Dragon will have a limited theatrical release starting Friday, October 28.
Release Date August 28, 2026
Runtime 90 Minutes
Director Aaron Schoenke, Sean Schoenke
Writers Alex Kellerman, Aaron Schoenke
Producers Sean Schoenke, Aaron Schoenke, Ben Dukes, Jason David Frank
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Jason David Frank
Erik Reed / White Dragon
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Aaron Schoenke
Jai / Dragon Prime
English (US) ·