Nickelodeon’s New Cancellation Follows Unfortunate Trend for This Classic Franchise

Paramount has cancelled yet another cult-hit animated series from Nickelodeon Animation, and this cancellation unfortunately continues a trend that one long running animated franchise can’t seem to get away from despite so much effort. Paramount has begun to restructure their plans and are shifting away from children’s media (which has been a trend seen with other companies like Warner Bros.), and with it has resulted in the cancellation of two of their ongoing reboots of long running franchises Dora the Explorer and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But for fans of the Turtles, this cancellation comes at a very unfortunate time that feels all too familiar.

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the 2D animated spinoff of the massively popular film reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, has been officially cancelled after two seasons. The second season of the animated series will be making its way to the Nicktoons channel for its final episodes next year (where Nickelodeon’s animated hits sadly go to die) following a debut with Paramount+ later this December, but this cancellation now makes it two back to back Ninja Turtles shows that have been axed after only two seasons.

Ninja Turtles Just Can’t Catch a Break

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been cancelled after two seasons, and that’s unfortunately the same fate shared by its last animated effort, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. First making its debut with Nickelodeon in 2018, before ending its run with Nicktoons just two years later, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also only got two seasons to find its footing with fans. It was even shortened in the midst of that cancelled second season’s production, but at least it got to end things with an official feature film finale taking place after the events of the TV series.

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Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might have had a stronger lead in thanks to Mutant Mayhem‘s success, but it still met the same fate. It’s an even more tragic case for longtime Ninja Turtles fans as this was the shortest animated series in the franchise to date. When it wraps up its run, it’s only going to have 24 episodes under its belt compared to the 39 seen with Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (and even less than the 2012 incarnation’s 100 plus episodes). It’s almost like the franchise is getting less of an overall chance than ever despite seeing it release new movies.

What Does This Mean for Ninja Turtles’ Future?

As for what this could mean for the future, Ninja Turtles fans will likely get another shot at finding success with one of their TV animated series. This franchise has been put through the wringer and reinvented itself for multiple generations at this point, and it’s going to happen again soon. The franchise is still finding success in theaters, so it’s not all doom and gloom for everything as a whole. But at the same time, there’s nothing better than a good Ninja Turtles show.

There’s a chance that Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could still find a future with another platform too. Because while they are no longer going to produce new episodes, they are shopping the series to different streaming platforms. And as fans have seen before, if the show finds a new life with a new platform, it’s entirely possible that the other platform will want to produce their own episodes too.

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