Let’s Be Real, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Movie Was Never Going to Happen

The comic book series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, has been one of the most talked-about series focusing on the world of the Heroes in a Half-Shell. With the initial series focusing on the remaining Turtle attempting to live in a world where his brothers had died, this story swung open the door for several more stories in this interesting universe. In a shocking twist, Paramount had initially announced that not only was the studio planning to bring the series to the screen, but it was planning to do so with a live-action movie. Unfortunately, The Last Ronin movie has been canceled, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

For those who might have missed it, the live-action Last Ronin movie was “shelved” following the reveal that another live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was in the works. Bringing on producer Neal H. Moritz to helm the new project, it seems as though the R-rated feature wasn’t able to fit into the studio’s future plans. While this news might come as a gut punch to those who had been looking forward to seeing this dystopian take on Michelangelo fighting more mature threats, we couldn’t say that we were too surprised by the series of events due to several reasons.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has long been a franchise that has flourished in animation, with the first offering being the now classic animated series. Presenting a version of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael that was far more family-friendly than its comic book origins, this take on the Turtles effectively became the way that many fans still remember the classic characters. While Michael Bay’s live-action movies were definitely more adult than their Saturday Morning Cartoon days, they were far from being an R-rated affair. The Last Ronin was always going to be a gamble, as there has never been a truly adult take on the characters on screen. Releasing this story completely on its own was an even riskier chance for the studio to take.

Read Next

A New Live-Action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Is Happening (But It Comes With Bad News)

Adult Mutant Ninja Turtles?

In diagnosing the story of The Last Ronin, we are confident that it will one day be, at the very least, animated, but bringing it immediately to live-action always seemed like a risky path to venture down. Streaming services have found serious success relying on animation, with the Turtles seeing major gains across the board thanks to television shows and animated movies alike. Despite the latest animated series, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, being canceled after its second season, the film that kicked off this spin-off still has a sequel in the works. There have been more animated remakes for the franchise than we can count in one article, but there is plenty of room for a shelled Ronin to join the crew.

The Last Ronin becoming an animated movie would work well in paying homage to how the Turtles first appeared in the comics. Landing as a comic book series with Mirage Studios in 1984, the turtle brothers all wore red masks instead of multi-colored ones and were more than willing to dispatch any enemies they came cross. For example, while the Foot Ninjas were depicted as robots in a lot of cases in the more kid-friendly animated series, the original comics saw the Ninja Turtles taking their weapons to flesh-and-blood warriors. Again, however, there is far less banking on an animated, direct-to-streaming project than a live-action worldwide theatrical run, especially with regard to a franchise often seen as shaped toward a younger audience.

What Could Have Been

In a recent interview with us here at ComicBook.com, TMNT creator Kevin Eastman talked about the now-defunct project. During our chat, Eastman hinted at what the movie could have been, comparing it to Frank Miller’s take on the Batman, The Dark Knight Returns, “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.”

What do you think of The Last Ronin’s cancellation? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!