Paramount Pictures' upcoming animated rebootTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhemcould have featured the turtles' arch nemesis, Shredder. While chatting withComicBook.comat San Diego Comic-Con, director Jeff Rowe revealed that, while the new movie won’t include Shredder, it’s possible that the villain will appear in a future film.
“We obviously toyed with other versions of Shredder being the villain. We went into it pretty open, but at the end of the day, the villain needed to be a mutant like the turtles because so much of the movie is about mutants versus humans and the turtles perceptions around that. It just worked so much better when he was a mutant and when he had kind of a similar backstory to the turtles. It allowed them to relate and it gave Splinter a chance to also grow and arc in the film and when we made that choice things just started coming together and we’re like, ‘Shredder is great. There’s gotta be a Shredder movie at some point, but this one just isn’t it.'”
Appearing at SDCC, the director revealed that there were originally other versions ofTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhemthat included Shredder, but in the end, the decision was made to save theTMNTantagonist for a later installment. And,judging by the reviews so far, this was absolutely the right decision to make.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhemis produced by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver. The voice cast for the new animated movie features Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, and Brady Noon as Raphael.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhemwill also include stars like Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil, Jackie Chan as Splinter, Rogen as Bebop, John Cena as Rocksteady, Ice Cube as Superfly, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, and Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom.
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Jeff Rowe Previously Said That He’s ‘100%’ Invested in Furthering the Franchise
Previously while speaking to SFX magazine (viaCollider), the filmmaker stated that he is “100%” invested in furthering the franchise, noting that Shredder could pop upin a future movie. “We’llDark Knightit,” Rowe joked, referencing the iconicBatmanvillain’s debut in the second film in Christopher Nolan’s popular trilogy. He added, “When you’ve grown and you’ve become confident as a teenager, to then go up against a foe that is three times scarier than anything you’ve ever seen before, that’s interesting and dramatic.”
During a prior exclusive interview with the ComicBook, Rowe stated that the upcoming animated movie brings plenty of emotion. He said, “I mean, I think really just like wanting to make it emotional. We’re like, we’re making a comedy but, we really need to lean into this character story. And one of the first scenes that we did is that whole Splinter flashback and just really leaning into his loneliness and what the Turtles meant to him. And when he found them and then just the struggle to be a single parent, raising four kids.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhemis scheduled to be released by Paramount Pictures on July 19, 2025.
