Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows will see the heroes-in-a-half-shell rise from the sewers and back on to the streets of New York City, ready to face some of their biggest and baddest enemies yet; chief among them Dr. Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry), The Shredder (Brian Tee), the notorious villain Krang (Fred Armisen) and the fan favorite henchmen Bebop and Rocksteady (Gary Anthony Williams and Stephen Farrelly). Rest assured, though, in between their action-packed conflicts and battles, the titular Turtles will more than likely schedule in a slice of pizza with their buddies – the hockey stick-wielding vigilante Casey Jones (Stephen Amell) and fearless reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox).
While Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), Donatello (Jeremy Howard), Leonardo (Pete Ploszek), and Raphael (Alan Ritchson) have (understandably) been the focus of most of the marketing for Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequel, the ninja quartet have been left in the shadows for the latest character poster.
Released on the official TMNT Twitter account (via Comic Book Movie), the one-sheet, featuring a moonlit setting, casts Casey and April into the spotlight. Striking the same pose as in the international poster, the pair are placed front-and-center, equipped with their weapons (a combination of sports paraphernalia and O'Neil's brains). Simultaneously, the other vigilantes can be spotted in the background jumping roof-to-roof in true Turtle fashion.
In most installments of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Casey becomes the love interest of April O’Neil, and while some of the trailers and TV spots have hinted at a possible romance between the two characters, Arrow’s Stephen Amell described their relationship as “burgeoning”, during a recent interview with Screen Rant. By the sounds of it, we should expect to see some rescuing and subsequent swooning, with a potential to blossom into a fully fledging romance if further sequels are developed.
The future of the live-action movie reboot franchise will largely depend on the sequel’s success at the box office, especially considering that its predecessor received generally negative reviews from critics, but earned a worldwide total of $493.3 million, against a $125 million budget. And so, consequently, in the wake of TMNT’s resoundingly successful statistics, the follow up installment was announced. Arguably though, in order to encourage prospective audience members to purchase a ticket this time around, some of the former issues will need to have been addressed.
From everything that we have seen so far, it looks as though the sequel is attempting to respond to earlier criticism by loading the action-comedy feature up with more villains, doubling up on the Turtles screen time and adding new emotional arcs to the story. If all of these elements are executed correctly, then there is a fair chance that the Dave Green (Earth to Echo) directed sequel could possibly improve upon the rebooted franchise’s debut.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows opens in U.S. theaters on June 3rd, 2016.
Sources: Paramount Pictures, Comic Book Movie