Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe has spoken a bit about the role of the iconic villain Shredder in the sequel.
While talking with Empire Magazine, Rowe revealed why Shredder didn’t end up as the main villain of the first movie. He compared the situation to that of The Dark Knight series of movies, which used the Joker in the second movie instead of the first. The filmmaker then explained how much scarier the Shredder is than the first movie’s antagonist, Superfly.
“Shredder used to be the main villain [in Mutant Mayhem] before we pivoted away from that,” he said. “They saved the Joker for The Dark Knight … The one thing I can say without spoiling anything is, [Shredder] needs to be 100 times scarier than Superfly — who is a credible villain, he’s dangerous, he’s strong, he seems like he could mess the Turtles up. Shredder needs to be that, just significantly more.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem features the voices of Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michaelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, and Brady Noon as Raphael. Joining them is a star-studded supporting cast which includes Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, John Cena as Rocksteady, Jackie Chan as Splinter, Ice Cube as Superfly, Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut, Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Post Malone as Ray Fillet, Seth Rogen as Bebop, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, and Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom.
The film was directed by Jeff Rowe and Kyle Spears from a screenplay Rowe co-wrote with Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit. It was produced by Rogen, Goldberg, and James Weaver, with Ramsay McBean and Josh Fagen executive producing.
What was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem about?
“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 synopsis for the film. “Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a notorious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.”
