Concept artist James A. Castillo recently shared some of his alternate designs for April O'Neill, and we now have a look at his early artwork for the Heroes in a Half-Shell's wise mentor/father, Splinter.
Unlike the April designs, these don't look much different to the version of Splinter we saw in the movie (those somewhat unsettling x-ray-style sketches are simply to illustrate his facial structure), but the animated reboot's take on the character was quite a departure.
Generally depicted as a calm, extremely skilled sensei, Splinter was reimagined as a lonely, overly-concerned dad who longs for someone to share his life with. It works for this take on the TMNT, but some long-time fans have taken issue with this and certain other changes to the "established" lore.
Spoilers follow.
At the end of the movie, Splinter does find that special someone in the form of... Scumbug!
Check out the artwork at the link below.
“After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.”
Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu and Brady Noon will voice the roles of Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael, respectively. The cast also includes Jackie Chan as Splinter, Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, Ice Cube as Superfly, Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut, Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Post Malone as Ray Fillet, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, and Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom.
Jeff Rowe (The Mitchells vs. the Machines) directed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which is produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.