The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise appeared to be crafting a really special new entry with the live-action The Last Ronin movie. As revealed in 2024, Paramount hired Tyler Burton Smith to turn Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s acclaimed comic run of the same name into an R-rated live-action film. The announcement immediately brought waves of excitement to see the darker, Michelangelo-focused story come to life.
However, the TMNT franchise was dealt unfortunate news when it was revealed late last year that The Last Ronin movie was essentially cancelled. Paramount decided to take the IP in a new direction based on the family-friendly appeal of the turtles. A grittier, more violent, R-rated movie did not align with that vision.
After having a few months to process the news of The Last Ronin‘s cancellation, a new revelation about the potentially still upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie has made this development even more difficult to get behind.
TMNT’s The Last Ronin Movie Wanted To Bring Back Original April O’Neil Actress
In the year-plus that The Last Ronin was in development, not many details about the specific approach were known. It was, of course, expected that it’d follow the general framework of the original comic storyline, where Mikey is the last living member of the Ninja Turtles and seeks revenge on Shredder’s grandson for the deaths of those closest to him.
Now, it’s been revealed that Judith Hoag was approached to reprise her role as April O’Neil for the movie. She dropped the bombshell news at Big Lick Comic Con during a panel hosted by Collider, saying: “Yes, I’ve been approached, and I’d be happy. It would be a great bookend for me. And maybe that happens and maybe it doesn’t. We’ll see.”
April plays a major role in The Last Ronin comic, so she was always likely to have a presence in the story. But it was expected that the film would bring in a new actress to play the role. Asking Hoag to come back and play April suggests that The Last Ronin would’ve been a continuation of the original 1990s franchise to some degree.
The Last Ronin Could’ve Wrapped Up The 1990s TMNT Movie Franchise
If The Last Ronin were a sequel to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, then its importance to the franchise completely changes. It wasn’t a chance to do something different or more mature for the sake of doing so. It was an opportunity to deliver an adult-skewed story for the people who were fans of the 90s films and are now grown-ups themselves.
The Last Ronin was an opportunity to wrap up this story on a higher note. It’s no secret that the 90s trilogy didn’t end with its best movie. That iteration of the characters deserved better. The Last Ronin could’ve been that, with Hoag being the returning face who could’ve bridged the films together.
Considering how the comic ends, The Last Ronin would be the perfect final film in the 1990s franchise canon. It was a chance to say goodbye to these versions of the characters once and for all, while also setting the stage for a new generation of stories if Paramount wanted to continue it on without directly competing with the newer live-action reboot plans.
The fact that this movie might never transpire is really disappointing now. It was going to serve two purposes: adapt a beloved comic run and expand on the fan-favorite 90s trilogy. Hoag appears to still have some level of hope that The Last Ronin might come back around, and for the sake of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise and longtime fans, I really hope it does.
- Release Date
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March 30, 1990
- Runtime
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101 minutes
- Director
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Steve Barron
- Writers
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Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Evan Daugherty, Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman
