Summary
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has announced a sequel early, allowing the young cast to maintain their roles without noticeable changes.
- By having teenage voice actors in the film, the sequel aims for generational authenticity and believable banter between the characters.
- Announcing the sequel early ensures that the voice cast for the Turtles will remain in place for at least two movies, providing a strong start for the new adventures.
The newly announced sequel to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem can easily avoid a problem common with child and teenage actors. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem tells a new origin story for the heroes in a half-shell, with the Turtles using their skills as ninja warriors to fight crime in New York City while also integrating themselves into society. The animated feature also includes some of the Turtles' closest allies, namely their mentor Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan) and April O'Neil (Ayo Edebiri), along with other staples of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise like Bebop (Seth Rogen) and Rocksteady (John Cena).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem doesn't arrive in theaters until August 2, but plans are already afoot for the CGI-animated take on the franchise to continue, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 2 already announced. While it is not uncommon for potential sequels to be announced ahead of major tentpole releases, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 2 has an advantage it can utilize that few franchise starters ever do. Through a combination of its cast of young actors voicing the Turtles and its animated format, the sequel can keep the focus on the characters as young, teenage heroes.
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem's Sequel Announcement Is Smart With Teen Actors
A common problem in having child or teenage actors in a budding franchise is their growth into young adulthood is far more noticeable than the aging of adult actors. Even in an animated movie or series, this can also still be a problem, with child actors' voices changing as they get older. By announcing a follow-up so early, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 2 has the benefit of being able to side-step those issues by having plans in place to get the next chapter of the franchise going in relatively short order.
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo are respectively voiced by teenage voice actors Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon. Setting plans for the sequel early makes it that much easier for the young cast of Mutant Mayhem to maintain the versions of the Turtles established in the first movie. While the ongoing Hollywood strikes prevent Mutant Mayhem 2 from immediately rolling into production, once it is able to, there is likely to be little, if any, discernible difference in the voices of the teenage cast, allowing the sequel to avoid the usual conundrums encountered by aging child and teenage actors.
Why TMNT: Mutant Mayhem 2 Had To Keep Its Teen Actors
Compared to past iterations of the Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is striving for much more generational authenticity by having the characters voiced by actual teenagers. What's more, much of the Turtle's dialogue in Mutant Mayhem is improvised by its cast, which strengthens the believability of the quippy banter between the young characters in the film. With a more typical sequel gap of three or four years between Mutant Mayhem and Mutant Mayhem 2, the possible need to recast the Turtles could more easily become a necessity.
In turn, that could risk creating some dissonance between the versions of Donnie, Raph, Mikey, and Leo established in Mutant Mayhem, and potentially make the connective tissue going into Mutant Mayhem 2 more difficult to maintain. By announcing Mutant Mayhem 2 so early, the new Ninja Turtles franchise is keeping the voice cast for the Turtles in place for at least two movies. In all, that is a wise move to set the characters' new adventures in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem off on the strongest possible start.
