Fans react to Seth Rogen's TMNT as concept art leaks to Twitter
After Jonathan Liebesman’s failed 2014 attempt to reboot the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise on the silver screen, fans of the iconic foursome thought they were best left in their animated form or on the pages of comic books.
Roll into 2022 and Seth Rogen is having a crack at rejuvenating the historic artist-inspired anthropomorphic turtles and we explore what fans think about the concept art that recently leaked online.
The TMNT franchise kick-started in 1984 with the release of Mirage Studios’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series. The late 1980s and 1990s saw the success of the ninjitsu turtles in the acclaimed animated series and classic video games, however, the franchise has struggled to reach the heights of its pre-Millenium fame within the past two decades.
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Nickelodeon invests in TMNT’s future
In 2020, it was announced that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg would be uniting creatively to bring a new CGI-animated TMNT film to the network, including the talents of animator Jeff Rowe and writer Brendan O’Brian.
As reported by IGN, Nickelodeon announced during Viacom CBS Investor Day that the film would be released in 2023 premiering on Paramount Plus, igniting the production of a series of films focusing on the villains of the franchise. While the villain-based spin-offs will remain unrelated to Rogen’s project, all of the commissioned features will play a part in rejuvenating the franchise on Nickelodeon.
Speaking to Collider, Rogen confirmed that the film would focus on the turtles’ “teenage” qualities, which is a side of the group that Rogen always connected to from a young age. The creator added that the other elements surrounding the sewer dwellers would not fall under the radar, however, their teenage phase would be a “jumping-off point for the film”.
TMNT concept art appears on Twitter
News of official concept art images being released by Paramount Plus surfaced on Twitter to reveal the turtles’ new design. However, these images were largely removed as quickly as they appeared.
Various accounts successfully shared and retweeted the concept art, however, the images were soon replaced with copyright placeholders.
The fact that the images were taken down rather quickly suggests that they were either leaked scans of the artwork or they were prematurely released.
The concept showed a paintwork-styled image of the four turtles tucking into a slice of pizza on a rooftop, with a number of trippy animals weaving in and out the buildings of New York.
https://twitter.com/CultureCrave/status/1493761329991090179?s=20&t=kQvORra9V_fxM0DjyQUKhg
View Tweet
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Turtle fans respond to the design
One fan tagged Rogen in their tweet and asked the creator to not make Donatello “too nerdy”, as the concept art featured the purple bandana turtle wearing glasses with a bucktooth.
Another user instantly became a fan of the TMNT concept art because of its “87 vibes” with influences from the 2012 series.
Loving the #TMNT concept art.
Strong 87 vibe with influence from the 2012 version.
Fully expect the final product to evolve from this, but promising start. 🐢🐢🐢🐢
View Tweet
Lastly, a TMNT podcast confirmed our suspicions that the post was a leak, stating those were early concept ideas that the public was never meant to see.
FYI, Paramount is scrubbing all images that were shared from the movie concept art that was shared last night.
That was obviously a leak we weren't meant to see yet. We said it last time, nothing is final and things can change.
— Turtle Recall – A TMNT rewatch podcast (@TurtleRecallPod) February 16, 2022View Tweet
By Jo Craig – [email protected]
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