In April 2024, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that film producer Walter Hamada and Paramount Pictures would be developing a film based on IDW Publishing’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin. In the live-action movie realm, the turtles have had varying levels of success.
In the 1990s, the original trilogy started hot, but fell in popularity, drastically so by the time Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III came around. Thanks to an explosive popularity due to the 1987 animated series, this was many people’s introduction to the reptilian quartet.
However, aside from animation, the turtles hadn’t been in the flesh, so to speak, for over two decades. Thanks to Michael Bay and a team of directors, screenwriters, and producers, the pizza-loving shellshockers were back. Well, just in 2014 and 2016, as the Turtles’ designs and the plots proved unpopular with certain fans.
Of course, the Turtles have found life in animation. TMNT in 2007 kept them in theaters, while a crossover with DC Comics' Batman has brought them straight to DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production company, Point Grey, returned them to another 3D animated film in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, with an as-of-yet untitled sequel on the way, approximately in 2027.
But for one of the more daunting, bleak stories in the TMNT library, an R-rated, live-action take will be unlike the rest of these films.
Background of The Last Ronin
Originally outlined in 1987 by TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, Eastman eventually scripted the story with Tom Waltz, assisted by artists Esau and Isaac Escorza, and Ben Bishop. To date, it’s been continued with The Last Ronin: The Lost Years and The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution, showing a new generation of mutated Turtles following the events of the original.
The story is told with absolute heart. Though some reviews may critique the overall consistency of Hiroto (as per Grant DeArmitt of GamesRadar), the overall vibe of the series hits. After decades of being pop culture icons, the Turtles were given a different story. A view of an end that might never come in our lifetimes. Tragedy after following characters with history, brimming with life.
In a dystopian, cyberpunk future, a decade from the natural timeline of the Turtles, only one of the four shelled brothers remains. Amid the ruins of a Foot Clan uprising at the behest of Shredder’s daughter Karai and her son Oruku Hiroto, only one turtle remained. Michelangelo, once the happy-go-lucky party dude, was now a hardened survivor of a world he no longer recognized.
The cast of characters is almost completely new; Karai is comatose, Honeycutt is inactive, Baxter Stockman is reduced to a cyborg, and April O’Neil is an older, amputated, yet still optimistic woman.
One of my favorite details of The Last Ronin was undoubtedly the way Michelangelo’s story during the decade away from New York City contrasts with the main story’s aesthetic; the panels are black and white, the art style is rough and unpolished and punk rock, like the underground feel of the early TMNT comics.
The Last Ronin did what it needed to do. Closure for the Turtles in case Eastman and Laird aren’t there to tell how they’d end their story. Nostalgia to tie it together. A set-up for future stories with a different cast of characters in a world that moved on from Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello.
Walter Hamada has a large breadth of ways he could implement this story in his film.
An idea for The Last Ronin, Live-Action
Nostalgia, as mentioned earlier, can play well here.
Historically, Hamada is primarily known for his work on horror franchises. From It to The Conjuring to Annabelle to The Nun, he’s brought the spooks. This lends itself well to a disturbing future where the Turtles aren’t present to save the day from the shadows. Furthermore, Hamada took on the role of president at DC Films, where he oversaw films the likes of Joker, Birds of Prey, The Suicide Squad (the good one), and The Batman, among the admittedly rough myriad of films mired by corporate interference, leading him to step down.
With the horror and superhero genres under his belt, it makes sense for him to helm a gritty comic book story. I’m even wondering how he’ll play into the body horror of Baxter Stockman, the dread of an oppressive New York City, and the despair of a world that once-orange bandana’d Michelangelo lives in.
To psychologically twist the knife into viewers, I think melding the past with the future in the present can yield positive results.
Remember those Jim Henson designs of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the early 1990s? The cheesiness, the film grain, the music… Leitmotifs of these could illustrate a dark parody of what TMNT fans have loved and grown up with. The weariness of time on Mikey, the change in humor, the lengths man is willing to go to, and the overall passage of time.
Moreso, the message of The Last Ronin’s IDW run, “know peace”, runs in tandem with the nostalgia. Sure, we’ve gotten older and time moves our pasts further behind us, but it doesn’t mean we can’t cherish it.
There’s still time to do this, to have a follow-up after all these decades. All of the voice actors for the Turtles and Splinter are still alive, even the replacements. Judith Hoag or Paige Turco could reprise the seasoned April O’Neil, and in some form, I’m sure Elias Koteas can don the hockey goalie mask and stick for Casey Jones one more time.
Despite aging by, like, one year since 1991, Ernie Reyes Jr. as Keno can offer supplemental presence in the cast. In fact, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to; he loves his past with the TMNT franchise.
The age of the former voice actors can carry the weight of time, with the ghosts of Leo, Donnie, and Raph sounding like forgotten tones of their former selves. Add in some relevant names for new characters like Casey Marie Jones and Oroku Hiroto, and the casting could come along well.
Puppeteers and CGI have blended well in the past to add realism to surreal elements in stories. The Last Ronin might enjoy that same success, too. The Jim Henson designs are classics, but didn’t always move properly, which is where '90s movie magic had to step in. Filmmaking has come a long way since then, with CGI being a driving force in most films. Recently, however, film studios have reverted to practical effects, and the aforementioned combination of the two elements.
To add more immersion (this is optional), I’d not say no to a VHS filter, or overall VHS filming of flashback and archival scenes.
Conclusion
Naturally, the live-action adaptation of The Last Ronin may vary wildly from what I envision. It might be even better. For all I know, Hamada could have a talented and smart team to plan whatever needs to be, to make the movie a classic. I don’t know what goes into making a film, I just know what I would like to see. I also know that this upcoming film has the potential to be everything I wasn’t expecting and more.
Also, it’s important to understand that some of the past cast and crew from the '90s film have every right to not want to do this, to let someone else take the mantle. These people have given more than enough childhood memories to countless adults.
Overall, this was a rumination on what could work in this re-telling of the 2018 comic book run.
I know as a lifelong fan of Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie, I’ll be brimming with excitement with whichever route is taken. Shoot, I was happy when we finally got Bebop and Rocksteady in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.
I simply offer this take in case anyone else finds this idea to be an intriguing idea of adapting this story to film.
I have no natural closing statement, so I’ll just end on this:
“Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza.”
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