The new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie coming later this year promises to show you these comics characters like you’ve never seen them before — in more ways than one. The first trailer for “Mutant Mayhem” not only introduces a visually striking animation style for the new film (not unlike “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”), but also showcases a twist on the characters that positions them as genuine teenagers (right down to the voice casting) instead of the pseudo early twentysomething iterations that have permeated other adaptations.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” hails from director Jeff Rowe, a writer on the acclaimed series “Gravity Falls” and co-writer and co-director of the Oscar-nominated Netflix animated film “The Mitchells vs. the Machines.”
The logline for this new film is as follows: 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.
Nickelodeon Movies and Point Grey Productions’ Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver are producing the all-new iteration. The film marks Nickelodeon’s first-ever CG-animated theatrical production, in partnership with Naito and Jason McConnell, who are overseeing production for Nickelodeon. For Point Grey, Lukas Williams is co-producing and Josh Fagen is overseeing.
Paramount Pictures will handle worldwide distribution of the film, which is slated to hit theaters Aug. 4, 2023.
The stacked voice cast is as follows:
- Micah Abbey as Donatello
- Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo
- Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog
- Rose Byrne as Leatherhead
- Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo
- John Cena as Rocksteady
- Jackie Chan as Splinter
- Ice Cube as Superfly
- Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut
- Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil
- Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman
- Post Malone as Ray Fillet
- Brady Noon as Raphael
- Seth Rogen as Bebop
- Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko
- Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom
