Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie Reintroduces a Familiar Team Dynamic

Next month sees the release of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, set in the same world as the Nickelodeon series that concluded in 2020. Running for two seasons, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made many changes to the Turtles mythos, including Raphael leading the team instead of his younger brother Leonardo. However, when Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie debuts on Netflix August 5th, a change of leadership will be made. Executive producers Ant Ward and Andy Suriano teased how the team dynamic is shuffled, and what other familiar themes fans can expect.

"Leo and his journey is very much front and center," Ward told io9. "He's on quite the arc, as it were." Ward and Suriano revealed how Nickelodeon approached them during the production of Season 2 to pitch a Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles story that could be developed into a feature film. Along with introducing the alien Krang, who were intent on invading Earth, another of their ideas featured Raphael passing the leadership mantle over to Leonardo, and how that changes things for the Turtles.

"The movie definitely was our opportunity to do that storyline justice," added Suriano. "It bleeds into everyone else's role. Raph was the leader for the series. Raph was the oldest. When that shifts to the younger brother suddenly in charge, that shifts everybody's relationship."

Turtles fans are familiar with Raphael and Leonardo butting heads over their vastly different leadership styles. This theme will continue in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie as well. "We're gonna see them butting heads in their own unique way that only Rise can bring," Ward assured.

Suriano laughed and said, "We exploited the powder keg that was always there."

Another character debuting is the Turtles ally, Casey Jones. Of course, a female Casey Jones has starred in the series, though her name is actually Cassandra "Casey" Jones and she was a member of the Foot Clan. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie's Casey Jones is the one fans are most familiar with, and travels from the future to warn the team of Krang's evil scheme.

"Cassandra was always in the show and was always meant to be 'Casey'," said Ward. "We had to ramp that reveal up from where it was originally going to be, so as we were doing that, we were also doing this new Casey. We love Casey in the movie. Haley Joel Osment absolutely crushes it. I think there's a sense of responsibility that might not be front and center in previous iterations. There's definitely a bit of 'Goongala!' in there. He's not to be trifled with."

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie debuts August 5th on Netflix.