Ever since Into the Spider-Verse premiered back in 2018, we’ve been hoping that it might kick off a real renaissance of cartoon action epics, superhero-focused or otherwise. Given how long these things take to get off of the ground and with all the delays that COVID’s caused, it seemed to be a pretty far-off dream, especially with how often that film’s sequels got punted across the schedule. But, courtesy of producer Seth Rogen, the Heroes in a Half-Shell will get the Spider-Verse treatment in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. It’s a new theatrical release in the franchise, which has mostly been small-screen-oriented since Michael Bay produced the last live-action films, and Paramount dropped the teaser for the project earlier on Monday.
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis:
“In ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’, 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.”
More important than the boilerplate “origin story” synopsis is the cast list, which, with apologies to Megan Fox and Elias Koteas, is full of some genuine heavyweights. Take a deep breath, and then take all of these names in:
It’ll feature Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown, Jr., Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne, Nicolas Cantu, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Natasia Demetriou, Ayo Edebiri, Giancarlo Esposito, Post Malone, Brady Noon, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, and Maya Rudolph. Good god.
Anyhow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem will hit theaters on August 4. In the meantime, we’re gonna fire up the pizza oven and try to perfect our take on the kind of pie the Turtles themselves would love, and if you have any suggestions for ingredients, let us know. Hell, even anchovies can be pretty good.