The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is in the works, with The Fast and the Furious franchise producer Neal H. Moritz set to oversee the project for Paramount Pictures.
The Skydance-owned studio is looking to breathe new life into its IPs, and this live-action/CG-hybrid would be the first time we've seen the Heroes in a Half Shell in a non-animated setting since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows flopped in 2016.
The animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was a critical hit in 2023, but the small-screen Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spin-off was recently scrapped. Those working on the show were told, "This is not the vision the owners want."
According to the trade, the Mutant Mayhem sequel is still on track for its September 17, 2027, release, but it appears Paramount is already looking to move on from that with a new live-action take. Beyond Moritz's involvement, we don't know what to expect, though multiple sources have said that the plan is to "Sonic-fy" the franchise.
The Sonic the Hedgehog movies were, you guessed it, also produced by Moritz. As one insider puts it, "If you want Sonic, you go to the guy who did Sonic."
However, this is bad news for The Last Ronin, the planned live-action/CG-hybrid movie that was going to be an R-rated adaptation of the popular graphic novel. Nobody director Ilya Naishuller had been in talks to direct, "but the new regime wasn’t keen on having the first non-animated movie in 10 years be a bloody, adult-skewing story. One insider says the studio wants to leave the door open to possibly revisit it down the road."
In 2023, we spoke with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman about what Mutant Mayhem added to the legacy of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.
"I think you touched on it a bit earlier with the accessibility and freshness to it. One of the most unique ideas in the movie, I thought, was the creation of the Turtles and the mutation process with the ‘Ooooze’ - it rolls off the tongue [Laughs] - with the other mutant characters they’ve created. It gives us a storytelling platform that’s unique to itself and the Mayhem Universe, but it also creates this wonderful platform and bond to tell lots of different stories. Yeah, man, I guess it’s just exciting to think about the possibilities of where it can go and, to me, as a fan and a proud dad and co-parent, I’m excited to see what comes next."
You can watch the full interview with Eastman below.