'Mutant Mayhem'-Based 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Series Confirmed For Paramount+; Sequel In The Works
Paramount+ is ready to shell out more Turtles content, especially if those villain-centric films are still a thing
After four years, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be headed back to episodic television. Back in October, yes October, NickAlive reported that the franchise's next television series would be based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, the series making its home on Paramount+. It would premiere next year. Their report was later taken down, having believed to "jump the gun", but not before colleagues at What’s On Paramount+ tweeted it out as well, and it remained up. In June, Cinelinx reported the same as their own exclusive. Early Wednesday, Variety reported it as their own exclusive, but also that the sequel is already in development.
The series destined for Paramount+ is to be called Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and is currently set for two seasons, to serve as a “bridge” between the films. Both projects will be produced by Point Grey Pictures and Jeff Rowe, director and co-writer of Mutant Mayhem, is returning for the sequel. Secret Headquarters and Thor: Ragnarok co-writer Chris Yost and Alan Wan, who comes from both preceding Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series will be serving as executive producers and showrunners. Lukas Williams will be overseeing both the series and sequel for Point Grey. It will be a 2D-animated series.
The official description says the Turtles "will be challenged like never before as Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey each go it alone for the first time. Faced with new threats and teaming up with old allies, the Turtles will discover who they really are when they don’t have their brothers at their sides." So far, the only known roles that will be reprised for the series are Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo and Brady Noon as Raphael. This marks the second consecutive time the title of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon has felt as if it's used an element from the 2012 series. The series premiere was "Rise of the Turtles", and the final season, with its anthology format bore the name Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Previous times that Nickelodeon Movies spawned animated series were from O Entertainment, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Barnyard, managed to keep most of its cast on for the characters that carried over. The exception? Otis the cow being recast from Kevin James to Chris Hardwick.
“In the nearly 40 years since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles launched into the zeitgeist, it has entertained generations of fans and only continues to grow,” said Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins. “We are excited to grow TMNT’s legacy in partnership with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg at Point Grey, and Jeff Rowe, who are innovating the franchise with their singular brand of humor and elevated storytelling for audiences everywhere, across virtually every platform.” Strangely, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation's President Ramsey Naito's statements about the series, which will not be restated here seem to completely ignore the existence of the most recent series in the franchise, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Mutant Mayhem, which releases Wednesday, August 2, sees the Turtle brothers fed up with being isolated from humanity, so they set out to win New Yorkers' hearts and acceptance as normal teens by being heroes, when suddenly an army of mutants, led by Superfly, is unleashed upon them. The news comes as the fourth and fifth seasons of the 2012 series were revealed to be coming to Paramount+ next month, as the four pre-Nickelodeon theatrical films make their latest stop, and the OG animated series was finally acquired by the company for Nickelodeon-branded platforms.
