Kevin Eastman is coming out of his shell to give an update on The Last Ronin movie. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator, who conceived the story about the final days of the Heroes in a Half-Shell with Peter Laird in 1987, confirms he’s involved with the live-action adaptation of the five-issue IDW miniseries he co-wrote with TMNT comic scribe Tom Waltz. Set in a possible dystopian future, The Last Ronin follows the lone surviving turtle on a globe-trotting quest to avenge his brothers and end a decades-long vendetta against the master of the Foot Clan: Oroku Hiroto, grandson of archnemesis the Shredder.
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Speaking to ComicBook at San Diego Comic-Con, Eastman revealed that he’s serving as a consultant on The Last Ronin, which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IP owners Paramount and Nickelodeon are reportedly developing as a gritty, R-rated take.
“They do not have to bring me in to be involved in any parts of anything, but they bring me in for the comics, the cartoon shows, [and to] consult on the movies, especially The Last Ronin,” Eastman said. “I just adore that, and they’re wonderful.”
Eastman elaborated that he’s been in touch with screenwriter Tyler Burton Smith (Boy Kills World), but couldn’t confirm reports that The Last Ronin will be rated R.
“I’m really excited what they’re doing and what they’re going to do with it,” Eastman said. “They’re all saying it’s going to be R-rated, but until you know officially, we’ll wait for word from them.”
Eastman then addressed whether the movie might revisit a universe from previous film adaptations, like the 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy or the Paramount and Michael Bay-produced Nickelodeon Movies reboot series from the mid-2010s.
“What I’ve been told in the discussions, as limited as they are, is that what they loved about Last Ronin — because Last Ronin, to me, was a love poem to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight,” Eastman said, referring to Miller’s seminal, character-redefining 1986 miniseries Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. “All things Batman exist in Dark Knight, but it was set in a universe just to the left [of canon]. So they didn’t have to play by all the lineage rules … they were able to tell a story all within itself. And with The Last Ronin, we took that same approach, but it leans heavily on the Mirage Universe.”
In that sense, 1984’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 is “the beginning” and The Last Ronin “the end.” “It’s my understanding that’s the approach they’re going to take, and good for them, and wise,” he added. “I think it’s the right way to go.”
The Ronin-verse, as Eastman and Waltz have dubbed it, consists of the sequel/prequel series The Last Ronin: The Lost Years, one-shot The Last Ronin—Lost Day Special, and the sequel The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution, all scripted by Eastman and Waltz.
Former DC Films president Walter Hamada is the producer on The Last Ronin, which is to be the first live-action Ninja Turtles movie since 2016’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Hamada, who executive produced The Conjuring Universe for New Line, also executive produced the Keanu Reeves-fronted 47 Ronin and action flicks like James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and Matt Reeves’ grungy and gritty The Batman.
The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution is now available from IDW and wherever books are sold.
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