Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem premiered this week to sparkling reviews, and a lot of fans are almost sure that a sequel is going to be coming. We don’t know exactly what to expect yet, but co-director Jeff Rowe already has an idea of how to tackle the franchise moving forward.
Talking to Collider, Rowe likens the direction of future films to high school, with Mutant Mayhem acting as the Turtles’ Freshman year. He explains:
“I had a teacher in high school that told me, ‘freshmen know nothing and know they know nothing; sophomores know nothing but think they know something; juniors know something but think they know nothing; and seniors know something and know they know nothing,’ and I think they just went through the phase where they don’t really know anything and they’re kind of aware of it, and I think they’re probably going to go into a new movie with a lot of confidence that will then be tested by the world and the social ecosystem of high school.”
Interestingly enough, the movie does end with a new teaser for a villain, and it’s possible that the producers already know what direction to take the TMNT with future movies.
It was kind of great that they managed to make a first film that doesn’t focus on characters like Shredder or Kraang; while at the same time really digging deep into the lore of the franchise and breathing new life into existing characters like Genghis Frog, Mondo Gekko, Wing Nut, and more.
So far, reception for the movie has been great, with some saying that the film is actually a contender for best animation against Across the Spider-Verse. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see until the end of the film’s theatrical run to see just how Mutant Mayhem really performed.
Catch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem now showing in theaters.
