The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles panel at New York Comic Con was a big crowd-pleaser, with fans cheering and screaming for Ciro Nieli (executive producer), Brandon Aumen (head writer), Greg Cipes (Michelangelo), Rob Paulsen (Donatello) and Hoon Lee (Splinter). The entire Season 2 premiere was shown.
However, plenty of other new details were revealed, along with a lot of glimpses at what was to come via early, animatic footage.
The classic (albeit not exactly ominous) character Pizza Face will be introduced, in a very funny way. Sounding much like Wario, when he’s first called Pizza Face, he responds, “I lika-that. Because I got-a pizza for a face!” One sequence showed Pizza Face having taken control of Raph, Leo and Don, making them attack Mikelangelo. As Mikie is forced to fight his brothers, he apologizes as he hits them, "Sorry, Don! Sorry, Leo!" Until he gets to Raphael and says, "Not sorry, Raph!"
There will an upcoming episode near the end of the season set entirely in Dimension X. However, Nieli promised, “Even before that we get into some inter-dimensional problems.” His big reveal was that at one point, an inter-dimensional rift will tear open to a 1980s universe with some familiar characters – the 1980s animated Ninja Turtles! Nieli stressed it was just a cameo, but that yes, Rob Paulsen will speak to himself, via current Don and classic Raph.
April’s psychic abilities will be further explored, as we meet a character named Kurtzman, voiced by none other than Robert Forster, fresh off his appearance on Breaking Bad. We saw a scene in which Kurtzman tells the Turtles and April that the Kraang have been attempting to terraform the Earth for thousands of years, but needed a “specific chain of human DNA.” He then takes out a photo of a baby girl, making April stare in shock.
Shredder will go on a journey of his own, leaving Karai in charge. He will meet up with Tiger Claw, who was mutated as a boy into a tiger creature, growing up as a circus performer before becoming part of the underworld. Nieli said Tiger Claw gave them an opportunity to finally have “The cat vs. the rat,” and we saw an animatic of Tiger Claw facing off with Splinter and the two leaping at each other.
Hamato Yoshi (Splinter) is carrying his four pet turtles through the streets of New York City when he encounters members of an alien race called the Kraang. During an altercation with these aliens, Hamato and the turtles are exposed to an alien chemical called mutagen and they undergo major physical transformations. Hamato Yoshi becomes a humanoid rat and the turtles become anthropomorphic. Splinter retreats to the New York City sewers, where he raises the four turtles as his sons and imparts to them his knowledge of ninjutsu.
Now teenagers, the Turtles venture to the surface for the first time and learn that the Kraang are using the mutagen as part of their plan to take over New York City. The Turtles befriend the teenage April O'Neil after she and her scientist father Kirby are abducted by the Kraang. Donatello, the third oldest turtle and most intelligent of them , seems to develop a crush for April. While Kirby remains a prisoner of the Kraang, April becomes an ally of the Turtles, who help her to find out where the Kraang have taken her father. April is also being trained by Splinter to be a kunoichi or female ninja.
The Turtles also learn that Splinter's long-time enemy Oroku Saki (Shredder) has come to New York City and has ordered his Foot Clan to track down Splinter and his sons, and put an end to their clan.
The Turtles discover that the Kraang, under the leadership of Kraang Prime, have come to Earth from Dimension X and are plotting to use the mutagen to convert the Earth into a planet suitable for their race.