Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fabs have been living large for some time. In 2023, the latest feature film adaptation of the series made its way to theaters, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem becoming the highest-rated movie in the entire series and grossing over $180 million worldwide. Between that film and its spinoff series, plus the never-ending supply of new action figures featuring the characters, fans were happy. Then, confusion struck when Paramount’s new parent company, Skydance, began making changes to the franchise’s plans.
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Fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are pretty immune to seeing their favorite franchise reboot, though everyone has a specific version that they like the most. On the whole, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a series that has thrived on reinvention and delivers brand new takes on the material with far more frequency than other IPs. That said, it still came as a shock to fans over the past few weeks when Paramount not only axed the TV series spinoff of Mutant Mayhem but confirmed a release date for a new live-action hybrid Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (one that aims to emulate the Sonic playbook on the big screen). Is the series in trouble? Is ANOTHER reboot on the table?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Franchise Plans Become More Clear
Naturally, the news over the past weeks has Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans concerned about the direction of the series, especially since the details are slim with no further context provided by the studio. Would the planned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem sequel be scrapped in favor of this new live-action movie? Is the series on course for another reboot despite preceding success? Now, we know. Speaking in a new interview with io9, Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe (who is also directing the upcoming sequel movie) was asked if he’s heard anything about how Paramount’s new TMNT plans are affecting his movie. The good news? They seem not to be infringing on each other at all, with coexistence perhaps on the horizon.
“No one’s called me and told me anything yet,” Rowe said. “It seems like we’re moving into a world where maybe multiple things can coexist. And, you know, there was a time when there were live-action Spider-Man movies being made at the same time as Spider-Verse. I love these characters and welcome as many takes on the franchise as people are willing to put out there.”
To Rowe’s credit, he’s right, Spider-Man: Enter the Spider-Verse was released in theaters in-between Tom Holland’s first two live-action movies, with all three of those movies becoming box office successes. In fact, this isn’t the first time that the TMNT series has had differing adaptations arriving around the same time. The first three live-action TMNT movies in the 1990s were all released as the original animated series was still producing new episodes, while the same thing happened with the Platinum Dunes reboot series and even the 2007 animated movie.
That said, all of these were feature films and TV shows that were existing independently of each other; the upcoming Mutant Mayhem sequel and live-action CGI-hybrid feature films are the first time this has happened for the series on the big screen with competing movie continuities. The good news is that this clearly doesn’t bother audiences, who can clearly separate live-action and animated franchises with ease (just ask Disney about the success of Moana II and the hype for the live-action Moana).
Despite the smoke being cleared on the status of the Mutant Mayhem sequel in addition to the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, one question does linger: Will the animated series continue after the second film? Or will it stop in favor of the reboot? It’s possible this could happen, as the animated sequel is scheduled to arrive on September 17, 2027, while the live-action movie debuts a year later on November 17, 2028. Time will tell, and plans in Hollywood change all the time anyway since three years from now is also an eternity.
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