A wealth of good news for fans of IDW’s excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin on both the movie and comic fronts.
You may recall how, towards the end of last year, the highly anticipated movie adaptation of The Last Ronin was apparently scrapped during the takeover of Paramount’s new leadership.
It was a sad day as the dark take on the iconic heroes in the half-shell was something fans were very excited for, especially on the news that Judith Hoag, who played the Turtles’ best friend, April O’Neil, in the original 1990 movie, confirmed that she was in talks to return, meaning the new movie, set in the turtles’ far-future, was set in the same world as the original movies we all watched as kids.
New live-action Turtles movie planned as Last Ronin movie is scrapped at Paramount
“Yes, I’ve been approached, and I’d be happy,” Hoag, left, said a while back at Roanoke’s Big Lick Comic-Con, adding, “It would be a great bookend for me. And maybe that happens and maybe it doesn’t. We’ll see.”
But then… cancelled.
However, now The Last Ronin co-writers Kevin Eastman (also co-creator of the Turtles) has hinted, well, said, that there’s still a chance the movie is coming: “I don’t think the movie’s off the table. I think it’s just delayed,” said Eastman, “Speaking with all the folks at Viacom and Paramount and Nickelodeon who love the Turtles and really have done a fantastic job, whether it be the 2012 series to Mutant Mayhem, I don’t think it will not happen.”
He continued: “I think it will happen. One of the things that anybody I’ve talked to at the companies, they know the fans love and support all things Last Ronin, as much as another group of fans love everything Point Grey [Pictures, production company], Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and everybody has done with the whole Mutant Mayhem series. We’re not disheartened at all.”
TMNT fans rejoice! Last Ronin and Mutant Mayhem games in development!
This is exciting news and it means that, should it happen, Paramount are happy to have several incarnations of the TMNT on the big screen as we’re waiting for the sequel to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem next year, as well as a new live-action take on the characters.
In related news, IDW has revealed that the hit comic series isn’t done yet, as a new prequel, The Last Ronin: Training Day, is on its way.
“While we were going through what he called the Roninverse, there were so many back alleys and stories and things that we couldn’t fit into the 200 pages that we had,” said Eastman, “One of the ones was just having Michelangelo spend time with Casey Marie Jones.”
The new book will feature work from artists the Escorza brothers and Ben Bishop, colorist Luis Antonio Delgado, and letterer Shawn Lee.
Tom Waltz spoke a little about the new story, saying: “Why is Casey Marie Jones wearing that costume with the mask? How did that come about suddenly? Those are things that now we can answer,” he adds. “But I like this idea that, if there’s a threat, the threat’s not gonna wait for you. You have to meet the threat. This shows Michelangelo acknowledging that and saying to himself, ‘I’m gonna be this person’s teacher. I better teach her as quickly as I can.'”
IDW Senior group editor Jake Thomas adds that “As we’re building up to the big Arc 3, we felt like there needed to be something before that where we check in, remind readers where this came from, and what this means.”
So, Training Day is a bridge to the next, as yet unpublished, series.
Exciting times, TMNT fans…
Thoughts? I know you have them and I wanna hear ’em all!
Check out the first look at Training Day:
Sources: Superhero Hype & EW
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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