Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe recently revealed that producer/actor Seth Rogen came up with the idea for the Heroes in a Half Shell to reference the Marvel superhero team, the Avengers, in the animated film.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Rowe explained that Rogen immediately came up with the idea that the turtles would have seen all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. “Seth was like, ‘Oh, I’m sure they’ve seen Avengers,'” the director said. “And for them, it’s like, ‘The Hulk saves the world [in Avengers: Endgame], so no one’s scared of him, and he can take selfies with people in a diner.’ And then when it came time to record the kids debating this decision, we were like, ‘We should just have them use the exact argument that we’re using in our story discussions. Let’s have the kids say that.'”
The Heroes in a Half Shell get animated
Brady Noon, Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., and Nicolas Canto lead the voice cast of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem as the titular Heroes in a Half Shell — Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo, respectively. Ayo Edebiri, Giancarlo Esposito, Jackie Chan, John Cena, Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne, Ice Cube, Maya Rudolph, and Paul Rudd, among others, also lend their voices to the film.
“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,” reads the official film synopsis. “Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opened in theaters on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. The animated film has so far grossed $51.6 million worldwide.
