A few weeks ago, Paramount announced that the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie from Seth Rogen would be arriving earlier than planned on Aug. 7th, 2023. Today, Paramount has laid down the first seeds that this movie will become the jumping point for a whole new series of TMNT based villain movies that will stream exclusively on Paramount +. The new announcement came as part of Paramount's Investors Day presentation, which included many upcoming projects as the company looked to secure its place amongst the streaming big hitters and also saw the release of some concept art for the new movie.
The last time the heroes in a half-shell were seen on the big screen was in Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of The Shadows in 2016, and while the live-action sequel brought all the thrilling, logic-defying fun of Saturday morning cartoons to life, there were plenty of critics who were quick to dismiss the movie. In the last few years, a number of new Ninja Turtle-centered movies have been discussed, and it looks like along with another live-action reboot, Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation Studios are about to bring a whole new animated universe to life starting in 2023.
When the new project was announced in 2020, ViacomCBS's Brian Robbins ushered in a new era for Nickelodeon Animation Studios, who are making the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles their first theatrically released CG animated feature film. At the time, Robbins said, "Adding Seth, Evan and James' genius to the humor and action that's already an integral part of TMNT is going to make this a next-level reinvention of the property. I'm looking forward to see what they do, and I know that Ramsey Naito and her team are excited to take the Nick Animation Studio into another great direction with their first-ever CG-animated theatrical."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movies Always Focused on The Shredder, But Looks Like That is About to Change
From the first big-screen outing for the reptilian heroes created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird almost 40 years ago, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello have faced down their arch–nemesis, The Shredder, multiple times. While this has given fans of the franchise something that they want to see, it looks like Paramount's new announcement of a series of "villain movies" being developed suggests that some other adversaries could be about to take center stage.
Along with The Shredder, other villains to have crossed paths with the pizza-loving foursome include the alien Krang, who was finally brought to the big screen in the 2016 movie, the Rat King, scientist Baxter Stockman and his mutated Baxter Fly form, along with many other mutants such as the Leatherhead and Slash. Exactly what form these movies will take and how they will turn the tables on the usual hero-led offerings is something that will be revealed in good time.
It seems that regardless of how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles performs in cinemas when it releases in August 2023, Paramount is moving ahead with the additional entries in the franchise as they expand the Paramount+ streaming platform in the same way Disney+ and HBO Max have already done with their biggest IPs. For Turtles fans, that can only be a good thing.