NEW YORK — Paramount announced today it is working on four separate movies, each chronicling the life of one Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, to be released throughout 2027.
“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest crime-fighting group of mutant turtles who have mastered the way of the ninja and eating love pizza,” said director Liam Miller. “I looked at the story of these incredible teens, and I looked at all the past films and television shows about them, and I realized: you cannot tell all four of these stories at once. Sure, they will overlap from time to time. But if I truly want to capture the essence of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I’m going to need a unique POV film for each member. These are real turtles and we are going to tell their stories correctly.”
Despite the risky play, Paramount is confident that the four-film venture will pay off.
“People love TMNT; we’re not worried. In 2021, everyone rushed to Paramount+ to watch an 8 hour documentary Peter Jackson edited that was mostly just the guys and Splinter hanging out in the sewers riffing,” explained producer Linda Bailey. “The scene in which Raphael shows up late, and Leonardo, just kind of messing around on his own, comes up with the phrase ‘cowabunga!’ completely on his own? Iconic. That documentary was a huge hit and completely reshaped our image of how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ eventual fallout went down.”
“Not to mention the hit 2019 movie Last Slice,” she added, “in which Himesh Patel wakes up in a world where only he remembers the Ninja Turtles, becomes a celebrity using all four of their iconic weapons and personalities, and falls in love with April O’Neil.”
Details on the upcoming films, however, are limited at the moment.
“All I can tell you right now is that all four movies are going to be very different,” Miller insisted. “There’s certainly moments, such as battling Shredder, that were important to each member of the team. But their childhoods — the time from when they were born as normal turtles until they were hit with all that ooze — is vastly different.”
“There’s no other famous foursome who you could do this with,” he continued. “Not even the Beatles.”
