Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Originally Had Versions Including Shredder

Paramount Pictures is getting ready to release their next big movie, and it just so happens to be an animated reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. From everything we’ve seen in the trailers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem looks like a fresh take on the franchise, and director Jeff Rowe recently teased that it will have a lot of emotion. Rowe also revealed that while this film won’t include the turtles arch nemesis, Shredder, he could show up in a future movie. ComicBook.con’s Jim Viscardi recently had the chance to speak with Rowe at San Diego Comic-Con, where the director revealed that there were versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem that featured Shredder, but they ultimately decided to save him for a future movie.

“We obviously toyed with other versions of Shredder being the villain,” Rowe told us. “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 kind of 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.’”

What Goes Down in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem?

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. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: 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 opens in theaters on August 2nd.

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for all futures updates on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem as we learn it!

What do you think about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem leaving Shredder out of the movie? Are you excited to see the movie when it finally hits theaters? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @NateBrail up on Twitter!