'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem' Cast Revealed At The Kids Choice Awards

Includes Paul Rudd and Giancarlo Esposito, and a return for John Cena

Hello Substack subscribers! Thank you for coming aboard. For my first blog, I’m giving an enhanced version of a newly written piece I did for What’s On Paramount+, with rewords and further commentary. I do have more exclusive pieces planned with non-overlapping subject matter, but I figured this was a good introduction.

Well, it wasn't quite a teaser trailer, but what we got was so much more. The cast for August's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was revealed Saturday night, just before the final presented award at the Kids Choice Awards. Additional cast was revealed over social media immediately after, and frankly, it's stacked.

First, there were glimpses of the Turtles themselves in what amounted to a teaser for a teaser. At first, it was disappointing, but then executive producer Seth Rogen brought out the lead actors voicing the turtles: Nicolas Cantu (the third voice of Gumball on The Amazing World of Gumball) is Leonardo, Shamon Brown Jr. is Michelangelo, Micah Abbey (who has no relation to 2003 Raphael voice actor Greg Abbey) is Donatello, and Brady Noon is Raphael. They’re young, and aren’t quite celebrities, which is quite refreshing. Then, as it turns out, this movie is packed with characters. Of course, Rogen wasn't going to leave himself out of the fun, he's voicing Bebop. Which of course means Rocksteady's here, and he'll be voiced by John Cena, making a surprise return to the franchise after voicing Baron Draxum for the first season of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Splinter, in probable inevitability, is voiced by Jackie Chan. April is looking to be black again, as she's voiced by The Bear's Ayo Edibiri. Cool to see that continue from iteration to iteration. The last character revealed on the screens behind them was Ice Cube as Superfly, a character choice showing just how deep they were willing to dig for characters to put onscreen.

This was evident because there were more characters revealed in a Twitter thread revealing the cast list even before the trades were ready. Familiar characters, big names, and definitely a few surprises. Paul Rudd is Mondo Gecko, Natasia Demetriou is Wing Nut, Rose Byrne is Leatherhead (possibly the first iteration of the character to be female), Post Malone is Ray Fillet, Hannibal Burress is Genghis Frog (normally of the Punk Frogs), and, proving that the character will continue to be black, Giancarlo Esposito is Baxter Stockman. Finally, on some sort of character spectrum ranging Kraang Prime, PAL from The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and Jade Wilson from Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Maya Rudolph is Cynthia Utrom. No Shredder or Casey yet, but frankly, this franchise needs more opportunity to not rely on Shredder for their movies, as hopefully the Rise movie begins and this film continues to demonstrate can be successful. And hey, it’s Bebop and Rocksteady without Shredder affiliation after already being mutated. So that’s fresh. They’ll probably be headed to him at some point.

The CG-animated film is an original story for the heroes in a half-shell protecting the sewers and streets of New York City. The premise reads "After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate." It then reads they become overwhelmed when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them. This tidbit certainly accounts for the sizable roster of mutants present in the film who haven't been brought to the big screen before.

Due to the pandemic sending The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run to Paramount+ and Netflix depending on the territory, this is Nickelodeon Movies's first CG-animated theatrical film. Directed by The Mitchells vs. the Machines co-director Jeff Rowe, it's set for release on August 4, 2023, and a full teaser will be released on Monday, so come back for that.