Paramount Pictures has bumped up the release date of the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film produced by Seth Rogen. Paramount Pictures' parent company Viacom acquired the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2009, on the franchise's 25th anniversary. Since the acquisition, the heroes in a half shell have become a valuable franchise for the studio as they have been the stars of two animated series on Nickelodeon, two live-action films, and made appearances in various video games like Injustice 2 and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.
After the box office disappointment of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows in 2016, the franchise was in need of a restart. In June 2020, Seth Rogen was confirmed to be developing a CGI animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film that would highlight the character's teenage status. While no cast or crew has been confirmed yet for the project, Rogen revealed a teaser image that showed school notes written by the team's leader, Leonardo, hinting at the tone of the film and giving a release date of August 11, 2023, for the film.
Now, it seems like audiences will get to see the turtles a week sooner. Paramount Pictures bumped up the release of the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film one week from August 11, 2023, to August 4, 2023. The move came alongside the announcement of a number of other Paramount Pictures release date changes for Mission: Impossible 7, the new entry in A Quiet Place franchise, and a new animated Transformers film. This will be the second animated film of the characters released theatrically, after the 2007 film TMNT.
This is one of two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles properties that Paramount Pictures has in development. SNL star Colin Jost is developing a new live-action installment of the franchise, said to be a reboot that is not connected to the Michael Bay-produced films. This is a similar format Paramount is adapting for Transformers, which is getting a live-action film in June 2023 followed by an animated entry in 2024. Interestingly enough, 2014 saw the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction in June while the first Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in August, so it appears history is repeating itself again.
The release date shuffle is looking to make 2023 a big year for Paramount Pictures, as they have multiple installments of some of their biggest franchises set for release. The studio has Mission: Impossible 7, Transformers: Rise of the Beast, and now Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set for summer 2023, with the A Quiet Place spin-off and Paw Patrol 2 in the fall season and a new Star Trek film set for release in December of that year. After a couple of disappointing years for Paramount Pictures after having lost some of their biggest franchises to other studios, it appears that 2023 could be their comeback year.
