'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem' Cast Revealed At The Kids Choice Awards

 

Well, it wasn't quite a teaser trailer, but what we got was so much more. The cast for August's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was revealed Saturday night, just before the final presented award at the Kids Choice Awards. Additional cast was revealed over social media immediately after, and frankly, it's stacked.

First, there were glimpses of the Turtles themselves in what amounted to a teaser for a teaser. At first, it was disappointing, but then executive producer Seth Rogen brought out the lead actors voicing the turtles: Nicolas Cantu (the third Gumball on The Amazing World of Gumball) is Leonardo, Shamon Brown Jr. is Michelangelo, Micah Abbey (who is not 2003 Raphael voice actor Greg Abbey's kid) is Donatello, and Brady Noon is Raphael. Then, as it turns out, this movie is packed with characters. Of course, Rogen wasn't going to leave himself out of the fun, he's voicing Bebop. Which of course means Rocksteady's here, and he'll be voiced by John Cena, making a surprise return to the franchise after voicing Baron Draxum for the first season of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Splinter, in probable inevitability, is voiced by Jackie Chan. April is looking to be black again, as she's voiced by The Bear's Ayo Edibiri. The last character revealed on the screens behind them was Ice Cube as Superfly, a character choice showing just how deep they were willing to dig for characters to put onscreen.

This was evident because there were more characters revealed in a Twitter thread revealing the cast list even before the trades were ready. Familiar characters, big names, and definitely a few surprises. Paul Rudd is Mondo Gecko, Natasia Demetriou is Wing Nut, Rose Byrne is Leatherhead (possibly the first iteration of the character to be female), Post Malone is Ray Fillet, Hannibal Burress is Genghis Frog, Maya Rudolph is Cynthia Utrom, and Giancarlo Esposito is Baxter Stockman. No Shredder or Casey yet, but frankly, this franchise needs more opportunity to not rely on Shredder for their movies, as hopefully the Rise movie begins to demonstrate can be successful.

The CG-animated film is an original story for the heroes in a half-shell protecting the sewers and streets of New York City. The premise reads "After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate." It then reads they become overwhelmed when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them. This tidbit probably accounts for such a sizable roster of mutants present in the film who haven't been brought to the big screen before.

Due to the pandemic sending The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run to Paramount+ and Netflix depending on the territory, this is Nickelodeon Movies's first CG-animated theatrical film. Directed by The Mitchells vs. the Machines co-director Jeff Rowe, t's set for release on August 4, 2023, and a full teaser will be released on Monday, so come back for that. When it will land on Paramount+ of course remains to be determined.

Source: Deadline