Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character Shredder might not be in Mutant Mayhem but he'll definitely show up in future movies, says co-director Jeff Rowe. If the new animation spawns a franchise, that is...
"We'll Dark Knight it," Rowe jokes to SFX magazine in the new issue, which features Good Omens season 2 on the cover, before adding that he'd "100%" love to develop a sequel. "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."
In TMNT lore, Shredder is the archenemy of the titular Turtles' mentor Splinter, who is voiced in the new film by Jackie Chan. Various iterations of the character, who is most often known as Oroku Saki, have have been depicted over time, including human and non-human, as well as both male and female.
As you might expect, Mutant Mayhem centers on righteous reptilians Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo, as they set out to win the hearts of their fellow New Yorkers, after years of being sheltered from the human world. Alongside their new friend, April O'Neil (Ayo Edebiri), the anthropomorphic foursome attempt to take down a mysterious crime syndicate, but find themselves in over their shells when they become the target of an army of mutants.
Seth Rogen, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, John Cena, and Paul Rudd are among the star-studded voice cast. It releases on August 4.
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Referencing how the Turtles are very rarely adolescents whenever a new version of the 1980s cartoon rolls around, Rowe, who helmed the movie with Kyler Spears, told SFX: "We wanted a teenager to watch the movie and feel seen by it and understood.
"That was our cornerstone for everything, like making the Turtles not hulking, ripped versions of themselves, but lanky and awkward. That carried through into casting actual teenagers. It's insane that it had never been done before." Here, the eponymous quartet are voiced by Nicolas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Brady Noon, and Shamon Brown Jr.
That's just a snippet of our interview, available in the latest issue of SFX Magazine, which features Good Omens season 2 on the cover and is available on newsstands from Wednesday, July 12. For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.
