Paramount Pictures is hitting the pause button on the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin movie. The project was first announced in April 2024. It was going to be an R-rated adaptation of the hit comic of the same name. Now though, the new regime at Paramount, which recently merged with Skydance, is having second thoughts.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Neal H. Moritz is in talks to produce a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Mortiz is known for his work on the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. Paramount wants to “Sonic-fy” the heroes in a half-shell. That’s why they’re going after Moritz. Unfortunately, Paramount didn’t want the first live-action TMNT movie in roughly a decade to be an R-rated, bloody affair. Hence, The Last Ronin has been shelved.
Initially published in 2020, The Last Ronin was set in the distant future, offering a darker look at the beloved heroes. It instantly became a huge hit and one of IDW’s best-selling books in recent years. A sequel series titled The Last Ronin II – Re-Evolution followed. A video game based on the book was also announced a couple of years ago, though updates on that have been few and far between.
Here is the synopsis for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin.
“Who is the Last Ronin? In a future, battle-ravaged New York City, a lone surviving Turtle embarks on a seemingly hopeless mission seeking justice for the family he lost. From legendary TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, get ready for the final story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, three decades in the making! What terrible events destroyed his family and left New York a crumbling, post-apocalyptic nightmare? All will be revealed in this climactic Turtle tale that sees longtime friends becoming enemies and new allies emerging in the most unexpected places. Can the surviving Turtle triumph?”
The report notes that there’s hope that the project might be revisited in the future. It just wouldn’t be any time soon. The studio has been making major changes since Skydance took over. The animated series Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which takes place in the same universe as the Mutant Mayhem movie, was also canceled recently after two seasons. A Mutant Mayhem sequel is still in the works, currently set to hit theaters in September 2027.
The new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie doesn’t have a release date yet but stay tuned.
What do you think? Are you sad the movie got canceled? Are you excited about a new live-action TMNT movie? Join in on the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
