Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may not have been directed by Michael Bay, but last year's glossy big screen repackaging of the most skilled reptilian vigilantes in New York nonetheless managed to capture the Bay magic of being simultaneously reviled by critics and drowned in dollars. Although Jonathan Liebesman's new take on the franchise didn't quite reach Transformers levels of financial success, its $477 million worldwide gross more than qualified it for a sequel.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will also enjoy a pretty rapid turnaround, with a release date already set for summer 2016 and Dave Green (Earth to Echo) in line to direct it. New additions to the rebooted movie universe will include classic villains Bebop and Rocksteady, and potentially the Turtles' fellow vigilante Casey Jones as well.

Bay's production company, Platinum Dunes, isn't all about huge blockbusters. It's also handling upcoming low-budget found-footage sci-fi Project Almanac, and during Project Almanac's press run Collider sneaked in a few questions about TMNT 2 and Platinum Dunes' planned remake of Friday the 13th. Producer Andrew Form was able to confirm that TMNT 2 will begin filming in New York in April, and that Platinum Dunes is hoping to get Friday the 13th in front of the cameras this year as well.

Form also confirmed that Jason Voorhees will be in the Friday the 13th remake, though that doesn't say much. Technically Jason was in the original movie as well, but he wasn't the killer. In terms of the movie's current status, Form says that Platinum Dunes is still working on getting a script ready (he didn't name a screenwriter), so it's safe to assume that Friday the 13th probably isn't going to hit its planned November 2015 release date.

Form explained said that characters like Bebop and Rocksteady were originally going to be in the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (as evidenced by the concept art that later emerged) but that they had to be cut because "only so many [characters] fit in the box." Remember that the concept art also included images of Krang, so it's very possible that he'll be another one of the characters that ends up appearing in the sequel.

With only a few months left to go before production begins, we hope to reveal more casting news and plot details for TMNT 2 very soon.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will be in theaters on June 3rd, 2016

Source: Collider