Netflix subscribers wanting to hang out with Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael are out of luck. As the final seconds ticked down on 2022, the streaming service began a bloodbath of removals, officially giving several films in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles library the boot on Saturday, Dec. 31.
No longer streaming in the Netflix content catalog are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the three films that make up the original 1990s trilogy, as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie. Amid their departure, only a handful of titles from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles library will remain, including Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, and the series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is unclear if the departed titles will eventually find a home on a different streaming service.
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A fan-favorite franchise, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise was created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, who between 1984 and 2004 released a comic book series. The franchise centers around our anthropomorphic turtle brothers – Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael – who are trained in ninjutsu and fight evil in New York City.
Following the initial publication of the comic book series, and following a series of toys and video games, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise expanded in the ’90s with the debut of the first films. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in 1990, followed by The Secret of the Ooze in 1991 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III in 1993. While the three films marked the original trilogy, the franchise continued to expand with a live-action television series, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, other animated series, and even more films.
Unfortunately, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is just one of several franchises affected by Netflix’s latest rush of outgoing titles. Dec. 31 also saw the exits of the Austin Powers, Rush Hour, and Men in Black trilogies. The titles departed as the streamer began to make space for its list of incoming January 2023 additions, which includes Ginny & Georgia Season 2 and the debut of Netflix’s That ’70s Show reboot, That ’90s Show.
