Credit: Paramount PicturesNinja Turtles fans, rejoice! We finally have an update about The Last Ronin game currently in development.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can easily be compared to Batman — it works just as well in the family-friendly arena as it does in more mature territory. However, while Warner Bros. and DC seem to have embraced the Caped Crusader’s darker side in mainstream media in recent years, TMNT‘s gritty origins remain underground — both figuratively and literally.
Since 1987, three years after the Turtles first appeared in Mirage Comics, the franchise has been churning out universal content across all mediums: cartoon shows, live-action shows, concerts, video games, toys — you name it. But all the while, and unbeknownst to many casual fans, the TMNT comic books have been ongoing, spanning publishers beyond Mirage from Archie Comics to IDW Publishing.
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This is where you’ll find the half-shell heroes in their most pure form. While IDW’s ongoing series — which is currently being revamped following its 150th-issue milestone — is a relatively accessible iteration of the titular crimefighters, its spinoff series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin (2020) offers a much darker and brooding take.
Set in a futuristic and dystopian version of New York City, it follows the last surviving Ninja Turtle who sets out to avenge the deaths of his three brothers. As it’s mostly geared towards older fans, call it an “anti-Mutant Mayhem” version of the Ninja Turtles, if you will, as it operates at the opposite end of the TMNT spectrum to the animated flick.
Related: ‘TMNT: The Last Ronin’ Trailer Breakdown
The Last Ronin Game
Not only is The Last Ronin now three series’ deep following the release of Re-Evolution #1 on March 6, there’s also a video game adaptation in development, which TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman has admitted is something of a compromise with Nickelodeon and Paramount, who have opted to focus on building the Mutant Mayhem universe that’s now officially underway following last year’s 3D animated box office hit.
While The Last Ronin game’s developers Black Forest Games announced earlier this year that it had laid off several employees, fortunately, there has been no word on the project being canceled. And while we know very little beyond the teaser trailer we got last August, Kevin Eastman has now offered some information about what is shaping up to be a highly anticipated title.
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Speaking to Game Informer about The Last Ronin‘s unprecedented success, which shows no signs of abating, he said, “It just opened up like a Pandora’s Box of a lot of original fans finding it or maybe fans that were fans back in the day but have not picked up a Turtle thing in years were coming back to it.
“It just had the snowball effect that people that have never read Turtles or even some of the kids that were introduced to the Turtles in the 2012 series, but have grown past that middle part of the animated series, but they still liked the Turtles but were looking for something older and edgier. It was just right place, right time, and it just clicked and jammed and worked, and we were all like, ‘Wow!'”
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Eastman went on to explain the reason behind Nickelodeon and Paramount’s decision to keep the focus on Mutant Mayhem. “It was such a clever idea by Paramount and Nickelodeon in the surprising success of The Last Ronin,” he said. “They were already well down the road with the incredible Mutant Mayhem project and everything they wanted to do there, and they said, ‘We’d love to do something with The Last Ronin, but we don’t want to battle each other and take away from [Mutant Mayhem].’
“I’d describe Mutant Mayhem as a kids-of-all-ages movie,” he added, “much like the first Turtle movie that Steve Barron and Jim Henson did. [Paramount] said, ‘Let’s go and adapt it [The Last Ronin] as a video game because we can give it all the edge and all the attitude and intensity that you did in the comic series and even go a bit deeper.'”
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While he dodged specifics, Eastman gave an update on The Last Ronin game, saying, “Everything I’ve seen — we’ve been interacting with the development crew — and it looks like some of the sets and some of the characters have literally walked right off the pages of the comic. So beautiful. So fantastic. And so pretty much every fan of [The] Last Ronin that I’ve talked to is really, seriously pumped, like, ‘We get to have an older version of the Turtles just for us as a video game!’
The Last Ronin has broken new ground for the wider by franchise by introducing four new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Odyn, Yi, Moja, and Uno, two of whom are female. Whether or not they’ll appear in the game remains to be seen, however, they do appear in the final panel of the first series and are now the leading characters in the new series Re-Evolution, having officially replaced the iconic Turtles, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
TMNT: The Last Ronin II — Re-Evolution issue #1 is now on sale.
There’s no release date for The Last Ronin game. Check out the official teaser below:
Related: Marvel Writer To Launch ‘Ninja Turtles’ Series With “Dark, New Attitude”
Upcoming Mutant Mayhem Sequels
While TMNT fans are calling out for a movie adaptation of The Last Ronin, it looks like Mutant Mayhem really is taking center stage on the mainstream side of things. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) took $180 million worldwide against its $70 million budget last year and impressed moviegoers and critics alike.
Recently, we got the trailer for a 2D animated follow-up series titled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2024), which is set to premiere on Paramount+ later this year. Paramount Pictures has now also announced the release date for the Mutant Mayhem theatrical sequel.
Are you looking forward to The Last Ronin game? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!