Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Plans Would Have Included Entirely Unfamiliar Shredder

The last big-screen outing for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came in 2016's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, so when it came time to developing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, the filmmakers had a number of beloved characters to choose from to kick off a new universe. While director Jeff Rowe has previously confirmed that Shredder was considered as a main threat to the beloved characters in earlier versions of the script, he recently revealed that the villain would have been a bit different from the razor-armored foe that the Turtles have faced in beloved takes on the concept. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is in theaters now.

"He was in the movie for a long time, for a year and a half. And then it just did not work. And we were just banging our head against the wall and we had two big story problems. One, the Turtles were in high school on page 30, so they got exactly what they wanted way too early," Rowe explained to Uproxx. "And it also meant that the movie was a reset 30 minutes in, which was just broken. And then Shredder was the villain and it was too big of a character too soon. And you didn't understand how a crime boss, which is how we were playing him, was connected to these teenagers." 

He continued, "And it just got too far away from the most simple essential story, which is teens wanting to fit in -- the metaphor being that they are actual mutants and actually shunned by society. It's not just a feeling for them. And having a villain that was also a mutant and had similar experiences just made the themes and the story all kind of come together."

Various versions of Shredder have included mutated versions of him over the years, and various versions have seen him controlling elements of a criminal underworld, but Rowe's comments make Shredder sound like the version they toyed with would have been drastically different from the figure fans know and love.

Based on the initial positive critical and audience reactions, there seems to be a lot of potential for follow-up adventures, but Rowe confirmed that this version of Shredder wouldn't be repurposed for a future film.

These remarks echo similar comments Rowe shared with ComicBook.com about scrapping a previous approach to the character.

"We obviously toyed with other versions of Shredder being the villain," Rowe shared at San Diego Comic-Con. "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 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.'"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem marks the latest movie in the long-running media franchise, and a new reboot for four turtle brothers.  Seth Rogen produced the movie, and lends his voice to its huge ensemble cast. In the film, the titular heroes venture out into the real world after years of living isolated in the sewers. Though they try to be recognized as normal teenagers by their heroics, a crime syndicate with an army of mutants makes everything more difficult for them and threatens their plans for joining society. The voice cast for the film includes Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, and Brady Noon as Raphael. TMNT: Mutant Mayhem includes a slew of celebrities as well like Ayo Edebiri as April O'Neil, Jackie Chan as Splinter, Seth 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. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opened in theaters on August 2nd.

Do you wish this version of Shredder was in the movie? Let us know in the comments!