Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Director Teases THAT Villain for Sequel

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem reboots the TMNT franchise from a brand new perspective, mostly focusing on the "teenage" and "mutant" aspects of the crime-fighting characters.  Ice Cube's villain character Superfly keeps Splinter and the Turtles busy with his threat of mutating the entire world – but the mid-credits scene of Mutant Mayhem teased the idea that the sequel film will be more about the "ninja" elements of TMNT. 

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW! 

The mid-credits scene of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles revealed that Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael are enjoying their new status quo as heroes by attending high school in NYC. However, even as the Turtles are finding themselves, their enemies are keeping a close watch on them, as well. TCRI executive Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph) is still obsessed with getting live samples of Baxter Stockman's original mutagen ooze, by milking the DNA from the Turtles' bodies. To hunt down and capture the mutant warriors, Utrom calls in a specialist: The Shredder. 

Paramount announced that a new Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will continue the story of Mutant Mayhem until a sequel film arrives. That's led to a lot of fans questioning whether Shredder will be a big bad of the TV series, or will the archvillain be saved for the sequel film? 

According to Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe, Shredder is such a big villain, and such a major piece of TMNT lore, that there was no space to explore him and a new version of the Ninja Turtles in Mutant Mayhem. Instead, Rowe and co. took (as the reporter put it) The Dark Knight Trilogy approach of saving TMNT's biggest nemesis for the sequel: 

"That was our whole argument," Rowe told THR. "We were like, 'Look, if we do it here, then the next movie can make a billion dollars. Don't we all want a billion dollars?" (Laughs.) The sales-y argument and the story argument was that Shredder is a big character when he's on screen. He demands a lot of presence, and he takes up so much space in the story. So it was too much space in a movie where we're also trying to reintroduce a new generation of Turtles and get audiences on board with this iteration. And having them meet not the ultimate villain, but a villain that's more on their level, it really made a lot of story pieces come together. It helped us make the film that we ended up making."

Indeed, the approach seems to have worked, as a lot of moviegoers are enjoying the mutant-heavy focus of Mutant Mayhem. Fans are also seemingly loving the big teaser introduction of Shredder in the mid-credits scene, as a prime reason to look forward to the sequel. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now playing in theaters.