The upcoming animated feature “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is packed with a roster of various supporting characters from prior ‘Turtles’ incarnations including Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Mondo Gecko and more.
One of the most notable absentees though is the franchise’s blade-clad arch nemesis – Shredder. Though the character has appeared in most media related to the Turtles, and served as the primary antagonist in at least four movies, he’s not to be found in the new film.
In a recent interview with SFX Magazine, director Jeff Rowe confirmed that he’s saving the Shredder for a potential sequel. Instead, Ice Cube’s Superfly character – a human-sized fly with plans for world domination – will serve as this first film’s primary antagonist.
Rowe explains that the character of Shredder has a rich background that was too much to include in the new film so they ultimately left him out:
“We had Shredder for a while… He is such a special character in the lore. As a character, he takes up a lot of space in the story. And in this movie, it felt like we needed the villain to be another mutant, we needed it to be someone that could relate to the Turtles, and that the Turtles could also relate to and be somewhat tempted by. They needed to have more of a parallel story. And that’s what Superfly gave us.”
Rowe adds that he’d love to develop a sequel and the restraint “saves Shredder for future movies”. He explains why that option works:
“We’ll Dark Knight it… When you’ve grown and you’ve become confident as a teenager, to then go up against a foe that is three times scarier than anything you’ve ever seen before, that’s interesting and dramatic.”
The project marks the seventh ‘Turtles’ film overall to be produced following the original live-action trilogy, “TMNT” cartoon,” and the two Paramount CG/live-action hybrid films. That’s not even touching upon at least four animated and one live-action series along with countless video games and comics.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” will hit cinemas on August 2nd.
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