It's been a long time since Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael,
and Michaelangelo appeared on the big screen, so there's a lot of catching up to do. Here's
everything you need to know about the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
"Lob it up, Lob it up."
It's been seven years since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows arrived
on movie screens in June 2016. After that film was met with middling reviews,
fans of the franchise would have to wait until Summer 2023 to see another feature film.
Originally, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was slated for an August 11,
2023 release. However, in January 2021, Paramount Pictures announced quite a few
changes to the studio's schedule after emerging from the pause in theatrical exhibition brought
on by the COVID pandemic. With many major titles like the Mission: Impossible movies
getting new release dates, Mutant Mayhem was one of the many films to get pushed around.
Fortunately for Turtles fans, we'll now get to see the film significantly sooner. Currently,
the movie will hit theaters on August 2, 2023. However,
Mutant Mayhem will only have two days free of box office competition before The Meg 2:
The Trench surfaces on August 4. Both will duke it out at the box office for a couple
of weeks until they receive further theatrical competition from another young hero, in the form
of DC Comics' Blue Beetle. This new superhero's live-action debut will be released on August 18.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem will focus on the early days of the Turtles'
crime-fighting career as they navigate the Big Apple and try to show everyone
their heroic intentions. Not only do they want to be accepted as heroes,
but they seek affirmation and acceptance as normal teenagers.
"Hey guys? If we weren't monsters that were shunned by society and we could do what we wanted,
what would you guys do?"
Somehow, the path they choose to normalcy involves taking down mutant crime boss Superfly. Of course,
the Turtles made a new friend along the way in the form of April O'Neil,
a human teenager who becomes the group's most trusted partner in fighting crime.
The four half-shelled brothers and April find themselves completely out of their
element when Superfly unleashes a dangerous mutant army upon New York
City with the intention of eliminating all humans.
To save their hometown, the Turtles, their ingenious friend,
and master Splinter must save the entire city from mutated villains of all shapes. Some
of those menacing mutants will include the likes of Bebop and Rocksteady, Leatherhead,
Genghis Frog, Mondo Gecko, Wingnut, and the mad scientist Baxter Stockman.
Will they be too much for the Turtles to handle? Well,
we're assuming our ninja buddies will get the job done, but the movie is definitely
emphasizing their youth and inexperience. It seems the filmmakers are really trying
to highlight the "teen" element of our protagonists in this installment.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem boasts an A-list cast, with veteran actors and comedians
filling out many of the supporting parts. But before we start looking at side characters,
who will be playing the star-throwing, sai-wielding, mask-wearing Turtles?
Nicolas Cantu is playing the leader of the group,
Leonardo. If you're a fan of The Amazing World of Gumball,
his voice will definitely sound familiar to you as he played Gumball himself in Seasons 5 and 6.
The brainy Donatello is voiced by Micah Abbey, who plays Leaf in Nickelodeon's Cousins for
Life. The wisecracking Michelangelo is portrayed by Shamon Brown Jr.,
who previously starred as Stanley "Papa" Jackson in The Chi. Finally, the gruff
Raphael is voiced by Brady Noon, who played Evan Morrow in The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.
As for the rest, the legendary Jackie Chan plays Master Splinter, the Turtles' rodent mentor. Ayo
Edebiri of The Bear portrays April O'Neil, our heroes' human ally. Seth Rogen and John Cena will
voice iconic big baddies Bebop and Rocksteady, while their fellow mutants will be voiced by
Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, and Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko.
Post Malone plays the aquatic Ray Fillet,
Natasia Demetriou of What We Do in the Shadows will keep things batty as Wingnut,
and Giancarlo Esposito will voice mad scientist and longtime Turtle foe Baxter Stockman.
Some movies would be content to cast Bebop and Rocksteady opposite the Turtles, maybe throw in
a Shredder scene, and call it a day. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, however,
is going much deeper. In addition to bringing back a bunch of classic TMNT villains like Leatherhead
and Baxter Stockman, Mutant Mayhem is introducing at least two new characters to the franchise.
The first is the Ice Cube-voiced Superfly.
"What the — Y'all some little tortoises, huh?"
This mutant fly is the film's overarching villain and organizer of all the other
vengeful mutants in the Seth Rogen-produced animated film. In addition to Ice Cube,
actress Maya Rudolph has apparently joined the cast in the role of Cynthia Utrom.
While the Utroms may be familiar to Turtles fans,
Cynthia is a brand new character. We haven't seen or heard from her at all in the early trailers,
so we aren't sure exactly what form Rudolph's character will take.
However, in the TMNT universe, the Utroms are the alien species that the enemy warlord Krang
belongs to. Perhaps this is a hint at who the villain of a potential sequel could be.
As the trailer for Mutant Mayhem proudly proclaims,
the film comes from "permanent teenager" Seth Rogen. As the movie's co-producer,
Rogen is best known for writing, directing, and playing goofballs in acclaimed comedies
like Superbad, Pineapple Express, and This Is the End. Rogen has also produced quite a few of
his films alongside Evan Goldberg and James Weaver, who join him here as co-producers.
Going into Mutant Mayhem, Rogen has expressed interest in focusing on the inherent coming-of-age
aspects of the franchise. He explained to Collider that he always found the adolescent aspects of the
mutant heroes to be the most interesting part of their story. He elaborated that
the franchise being centered around teens made this project a perfect match for him, saying,
"As someone who loves teenage movies, and who's made a lot of teenage movies,
and who literally got their start in their entire profession by writing a teenage movie,
the idea of kind of honing in on that element was really exciting to us."
Rogen certainly approached the nearly 40 year-old franchise with a fresh mindset. Even
Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman admits he's pretty psyched to see the film, telling
IGN that he really enjoys Rogen's work and he's curious to see how he approaches the new movie.
With Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg producing, you might be wondering who's directing Mutant
Mayhem? The job of shepherding the Turtles to the big screen has gone to Jeff Rowe,
who co-wrote Netflix's The Mitchells vs. the Machines. He's also served as a writer on both
Gravity Falls and Disenchantment, proving he's quite adept at mastering the medium of animation.
Mutant Mayhem is Rowe's directorial debut,
and while praising the film's production designer on Twitter, Rowe wrote,
"The colors are cool and unexpected. We wanted to throw out the animation playbook on this one."
Based on the visuals we've seen, it looks like Mutant Mayhem will stand
alongside the aforementioned Mitchells vs. the Machines and Spider-Man:
Into the Spider-Verse when it comes to incredible designs.
Rowe has also compared the film to some coming-of-age classics,
telling Empire that his team had films like Stand By Me and Lady Bird in mind
when they were coming up with it. Speaking about the Turtles themselves he said,
"They've got a lot of that inauthentic confidence that teenagers have. When you're a teen,
you don't know any better, so you operate with this hyped-up sense of, 'We can do anything!'"
"I'm awesome."
As for who wrote the script, Rowe, Rogen,
and Goldberg all share credit, along with Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit.
The first trailers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem features the classic
hip-hop song "Can I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest. This choice can't help but evoke 1991's
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze soundtrack, which featured Vanilla Ice's
"Ninja Rap." However, there appears to be more to the Mutant Mayhem soundtrack than just '90s rap.
According to the film's director and one rogue celebrity, Trent Reznor and Atticus
Ross of Nine Inch Nails have been tapped to score Mutant Mayhem. In a funny twist of fate,
the news actually came out after skateboarding legend Tony Hawk
let it slip while being interviewed on a podcast.
Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe took to Twitter to get on top of the leak
and announced the official collaboration with Reznor and Ross on May 28. Rowe wrote,
"Well now that my teenage hero @tonyhawk has leaked that my music heroes are doing
this I can add that the score is absolutely AMAZING. Exhilarating,
terrifying, heartbreaking, full of sounds I didn't know existed."
It's unclear how much of the soundtrack to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
Mutant Mayhem will be Reznor and Ross's original work and how much
will be licensed songs from artists in the vein of "Can I Kick It?" If we had to guess,
we'd say there will likely be a little of both, but maybe that's wishful thinking.
While you're waiting for Mutant Mayhem, you might want to catch up on previous Turtle
content — and there's a lot. Unfortunately, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon
isn't available to stream anywhere, but you can purchase it on iTunes.
If you want to see the Turtles in live-action, you can buy Ninja Turtles:
The Next Mutation on Amazon Prime. Fans of the 2003 Fox series Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles can check out all seven seasons on Paramount+,
while fans of the 2012 Nickelodeon series can find three seasons on Paramount+ and two on Netflix.
And if you're looking for Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
various seasons of the series are available Paramount+ and Netflix.
The first feature film trilogy to showcase the Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles is available to rent on Amazon Prime, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Vudu,
and YouTube. Each of these platforms also hosts the animated TMNT film from 2007.
Finally, the first Michael-Bay produced TMNT movie, released in 2014,
is available to stream on Amazon Prime and Paramount+. The second and most recent film,
Out of the Shadows, can be streamed on Paramount+ and Pluto TV.
With so many different shows and movies about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles over the years,
we get that it's hard for anyone who's not a hardcore TMNT-head to understand where
the newest animated movie falls in the canon. Luckily, the answer is surprisingly simple:
we are starting with a clean slate in a brand new decade for the Turtles.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is not a part of any existing TMNT timeline. The
upcoming animated feature is a full reboot of the franchise. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's
approach of exploring the four turtles as modern teens requires a full reset of their mythology.
The vibrant art style also marks Mutant Mayhem as a distinctly new story with new
interpretations of the characters fans have known and loved since the 1980s.
Mutant Mayhem might be a fresh start, but there's a high likelihood it won't be the
only animated Turtles in this continuity. If the movie succeeds, Paramount has already hinted that
it may want more animated films from this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem doesn't hit theaters until August 2,
but there are already whispers that this stylish new take on
the Turtles is the start of a new animation initiative at Paramount.
In 2022, Variety asked Paramount Chief Executive Officer Brian Robbins about
the plans for rebooting the TMNT series. Robbins replied,
"It's going to work for kids, parents,
Gen Z-ers and millennials. We have plans to do multiple animated movies this way,
but one day we might go back to a hybrid live-action version of the Turtles."
This statement shines some light on the future of the franchise, while still being frustratingly
vague. Robbins teased a return to live-action Turtles movies, but definitely implied that if
Mutant Mayhem succeeds it will garner sequels. The phrasing is nebulous enough that Robbins is really
only committing to more animated movies in this modern Sony Pictures Animation-inspired style.
Regardless of how you want to interpret Robbins' statement,
if Mutant Mayhem connects with audiences, it sounds like you can
expect there to be more animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies in the future.