'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem' Co-Creator Kevin Eastman Calls 'TMNT' Longevity 'Mind-Blowing' (Exclusive)
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is available to rent or own digitally now.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is enjoying another resurgence in popularity right now, thanks to the new hit movie, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. The film debuted in theaters over the summer and quickly became one of the biggest animated movies of the year. Recently, PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman in support of the new movie, and he told us that it's been "mind-blowing" to see how the characters have had such longevity for nearly 40 years.
"It's really mind-blowing on every level," Eastman said. "I say all the time to the fans and stuff that when you go back to the perspective of the very first issue where we never thought we'd sell enough copies to pay my uncle back for loaning us the money to do the first issue, so the fact that we got to do a second issue and then a third, to experience what we did with the creation of the original cartoon series to the first movie." He continued, "So every year it was: 'What a tremendous experience. What a tremendous ride. It's going to end next year.' And man, we get nothing but great stories to tell our grandkids."
"Then, fast-forward to 40 years where you have this wonderfully talented group," the comic book legend said, referring to Mutant Mayhem director Jeff Rowe, as well as "writer-visionary" Seth Rogen and his producing partner Evan Goldberg, "to come up with a fresh take amongst other versions of the Turtles over the years and tell something that resonates not only to me as a co-creator, but a lot of the original fans." Eastman heralded the trio for bringing TMNT to a whole new generation by saying, "More importantly, I think, paying respect to all of them, is to then somehow find a way to tap into some of the newer fans, somebody that has none of that history."
"They didn't buy the first Turtle toy when they came out in KB Toys stores back in 1988 or whatever, and it still somehow resonates because they've told such a wonderful version of something that Peter and I created so well, and I love that I got to sit in a theater again and watch the Turtles on the big screen and just sit back and just ear-to-ear grin and enjoy it wholly and completely," he added, referring to his Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird.
While Mutant Mayhem has been acclaimed by new and old fans alike, one of the biggest risks was taking yet another new approach to Baxter Stockman, a character who has been a mad scientist (comics), a bumbling inventor who accidentally turns himself into a mutant fly-man (the original TMNT animated series), and the shell CEO of a corporation secretly run by Shedder (the 2003 animated series), among other changes. This time around, Baxter is the scientist — voiced by Giancarlo Esposito — who created the substance that led to the turtles, Splinter, and other animals mutating. One of those creatures was a housefly named Superfly, who is voiced by Ice Cube.
While speaking to Eastman, he opened up about the original character and shared that the idea for Superfly belonged to Rogen, Goldberg, and Rowe. "That's all them. Much like the very, very, very original idea, which I loved, I love that they constructed Baxter's creation of the Ooze, which accidentally created the Turtles, which also created the Mutants at the same time," he said. "So I thought that was just so insanely coolly conceived is that it puts 'the bad guys' and 'the good guys' on the same family, the same origin story. Instant relationship and kinship to him, and it gives you just this wonderful platform to do that."
"Out of the years of working on the cartoon series of creating a variety from Krang to the Rock Soldiers to Bebop and Rocksteady and so many other wonderful mutants that we created in that series, to then bring in something like Superfly, voiced by the incredible Ice Cube... Holy smokes, what a great choice," Eastman added. "But it was a way to bring in a unique and original character, but solidly grounded and based in that universe, and it worked so well. You had Ray Fillet, Post Malone, and you have Mondo Gecko, Paul Rudd doing the voice. Yeah, so they were great elements. It was good. Very, very good idea." Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now available to buy or rent on digital.