Even should you’re not an enormous fan of the heroes in a half-shell, odds are, you are no less than vaguely accustomed to the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Although the superheroes had comparatively humble origins in a black and white comedian e-book printed in 1984, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo, together with their rat father determine Grasp Splinter, grew to become popular culture icons.
Co-created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the Ninja Turtles gained true fame starting with their legendary ’80s animated collection, earlier than the 1990 live-action “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film took issues to new heights. But, again when it was nonetheless primarily the comics driving the characters ahead, Eastman and Laird crafted a narrative that might finally go on to develop into some of the beloved tales within the historical past of this franchise, whatever the medium. That story finally made its approach out into the world within the type of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Final Ronin.”
Initially printed as a miniseries between October 2020 and April 2022, the five-issue collection has develop into a best-seller and even spawned a complete “Roninverse” within the comics, that are printed by IDW. However, because the title implies, solely one of many 4 turtles stays within the e-book. That begs the query: who is The Final Ronin? We’re right here to reply that, in addition to a number of different queries to assist break down this landmark story in “TMNT” historical past. Let’s dive in.
What’s the story being informed in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Final Ronin?
Many, many, many tales have been informed involving these characters through the years. From the traditional animated collection to the ingenious origin story seen in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” many creatives have put their stamp on the Turtles by this level. Eastman and Laird, nonetheless, conceived of a quite ingenious and daring ending for the turtles with “The Final Ronin,” quite than a brand new starting.
In a press launch from IDW saying the publication of “TMNT: The Final Ronin” in April 2020, Eastman defined the story’s origins, which date all the way in which again to the late ’80s greater than 30 years earlier than it was truly printed:
“About 10 years in the past, I re-discovered a 20 web page define for a ‘TMNT’ story that Peter and I wrote collectively again in 1987. The story was set 30 years sooner or later, which (as written then) was set in 2017. Studying by way of it once more, I drifted again to a really completely different time in ‘TMNT’ historical past — again when it was all concerning the comics, largely simply Peter and I writing and drawing the problems, pre-everything the world would quickly come to find out about these characters that we would created and known as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
So, what’s the story, precisely? It focuses on the only real survivor of the quartet of mutant turtles as he seeks to avenge his fallen brothers in a radically advanced, futuristic model of New York Metropolis. The official synopsis for the e-book reads as follows:
“In a future, battle-ravaged New York Metropolis, a lone surviving Turtle embarks on a seemingly hopeless mission looking for justice for the household he misplaced …What horrible occasions destroyed his household and left New York a crumbling, post-apocalyptic nightmare? All will likely be revealed on this climactic Turtle story that sees longtime mates changing into enemies and new allies rising in essentially the most surprising locations. Can the surviving Turtle triumph?”
Which Ninja Turtle is The Final Ronin?
It will not be wanted given the title of this text however simply in case, that is your last spoiler warning earlier than we dive into the id of the ultimate turtle in “TMNT: The Final Ronin.” With that out of the way in which, let’s talk about the e-book’s massive reveal and the way it got here to be.
In a little bit of a subversion of expectations, it is revealed that Michelangelo is certainly The Final Ronin. Identified primarily because the humorous, foolish, good-spirited member of the crew, it may need come as a shock to seek out out that Mikey was the one who lived whereas Leo, Raph, and Donnie perished. Within the e-book, it is revealed that Michelangelo largely misplaced his will to stay after the loss of life of his household, and he even marched to the highest of an ice-cold mountain, ready to die.
Demise by no means got here, although, and, as quite a lot of time handed, he wound up re-dedicating himself to the practices he realized from Splinter through the years. Mikey ended up journeying all over the world to grasp his Ninja expertise, along with mastering the weapons of his brothers — not simply his nunchucks. These years of coaching have been later explored additional in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Final Ronin — The Misplaced Years.”
It is a fairly wild transformation for the character of Michelangelo as readers and viewers had come to know him through the years. However that is a part of why it really works. Leonardo was the born chief of the group. If it had been him, for instance, it may need been too apparent. The anger displayed by the Final Ronin within the e-book mirrors Raphael too carefully. Making it Mikey allowed for a extra fascinating and satisfying story.
Why Michelangelo was chosen as The Final Ronin
Although it was Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird who first conceived of “The Final Ronin,” that they had some assist in crafting the precise story. Specifically, author Tom Waltz, who additionally labored on “Cobra Kai: The Karate Child Saga Continues,” amongst different IP-based comics, helped Eastman pen the scripts for the story.
In a 2022 interview with CBR, Waltz defined why they ended up going with Michelangelo because the title character in “TMNT: The Final Ronin” (briefly, it was essentially the most surprising alternative):
“Mikey was the brother we figured no one would anticipate the happy-go-lucky get together dude is now Rambo? What?! Raph appeared too apparent, Leo wasn’t too far behind on the plain scale, and Donnie appeared like somebody who would’ve gone extra tech than typical in his revenge, and we actually wished this to be a grunt’s story.”
Past the concept that Mikey subverted what longtime followers would anticipate, there was additionally a little bit of a full-circle nature to centering “The Final Ronin” on this specific character. As Waltz defined in the identical interview, “TMNT” began with Michelangelo. So, why not finish it with him? In his personal phrases:
“Kevin actually preferred the concept that Mikey, who was the primary ‘TMNT’ ever drawn, was additionally the final to be alive. Thematically, Mikey gave us the chance to discover the irony of the one particular person within the household who by no means actually purchased into the clan-war side that exists on the basis of their lives being the one one left alive and caught with the mission of finally profitable stated warfare … or dying attempting.”
The Final Ronin was a Ninja Turtles story many years within the making
Over time, there have been some nice “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” films, and a few not so nice ones. We have had tons of animated reveals, completely different comics, video video games, you identify it. However “The Final Ronin” has develop into arguably some of the beloved tales throughout any medium within the historical past of the franchise. It is all of the extra fascinating that it was conceived very, very early on within the historical past of those characters.
In a 2024 interview with Inverse, Eastman defined the origins of the story. He and Laird have been attempting to image what the way forward for “TMNT” may appear to be, and that is what sparked this darkish imaginative and prescient of the longer term:
“Again in 1987, Pete and I have been wrapping up Subject #11 of the unique comics, and we requested ourselves that very same query: ‘The place will we go subsequent?’ We thought, ‘Let’s look 30 years down the street, to the place the Turtles are then.’ We began to make all these notes about what the world can be like and what had occurred all through that point interval. We got here up with a couple of 20-page, typed-up doc that Pete did, plus about 20 to 25 handwritten pages that I did.”
At the moment, it wasn’t known as “The Final Ronin.” They got here up with that after the thought was dusted off at IDW years later. What Eastman and Laird did know, although, is that this was going to be a possible “last” story for the Ninja Turtles:
“Pete and I assumed it is likely to be the ‘last’ Turtles story and that might give us form of a lighthouse to navigate in the direction of. However this was additionally when the Turtles have been actually taking off with the toys and the cartoon, so this concept bought pushed to the aspect till I discovered it years later in a folder labeled ‘Funky Story Concepts.'”
“When Kevin first confirmed me the define that he and Peter had created again within the ’80s, I used to be gobsmacked,” Tom Waltz stated within the authentic press launch saying “The Final Ronin” from IDW. “Past Peter Laird’s eerily prescient technological and sociological predictions, the story concept itself was thrilling and versatile, designed in a approach that it may very well be simply modified to suit into the various completely different ‘TMNT’ iterations which have existed through the years, with out dropping any of the core parts injected into it by each Kevin and Peter.”
The Final Ronin is being was a film (and a online game)
The recognition of “TMNT: The Final Ronin” has not gone unnoticed. As such, it’s now being tailored into each a film by Paramount Photos and a online game by THQ Nordic. Beginning with the movie, it was introduced in April 2024 that a live-action, R-rated “Final Ronin” film was being developed by Paramount. Tyler Burton Smith (“Boy Kills World”) is about to jot down the screenplay, with Walter Hamada producing.
This could be the primary live-action “TMNT” film since 2016’s “Out of the Shadows.” Within the years since that film hit theaters, Nickelodeon and Paramount have largely caught to animation with the franchise. As for the sport, it was introduced formally in August 2023 {that a} “TMNT: The Final Ronin” online game is within the works. A short teaser, which you’ll be able to take a look at under, was revealed on the time. It options little or no footage of the particular sport. No timetable for launch was given, and few updates have been offered, as of this writing, because the preliminary announcement.
Talking with /Movie in 2023, Kevin Eastman expressed his pleasure for the “Final Ronin” online game, revealing that he was working immediately with the artistic crew on it. In line with Eastman, they’re taking materials immediately from the comedian e-book and bringing it to life:
“I like that they are going to do a online game of ‘Final Ronin,’ as a result of I really feel like maybe there’s a chance to do a live-action or an animated model down the street. However the most effective place for ‘Final Ronin’ proper now’s to be executed actually in that edgier, older viewers supposed type. And I have been working with the artistic crew on it, and dude, it is improbable. I imply, they’re actually taking stuff proper out of the comedian e-book and bringing it to life on this online game that I believe followers of ‘Final Ronin’ are going to like.”
