Warning: Spoilers ahead for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Superfly (voiced by Ice Cube), the main antagonist from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was certainly no slouch. Not only could the super-strong, Mutagen-infused humanoid fly hold his own against the Heroes in a Halfshell simultaneously in combat on more than one occasion — he also stymied the Turtles ideologically as well. Being a fellow mutant meant Superfly could use humanity’s natural aversion towards mutantkind to more easily sway the Turtles towards his line of thinking.
So how will TMNT: Mutant Mayhem 2‘s villain top Superfly? Two words: The Shredder.
According to Mutant Mayhem screenwriter and director Jeff Rowe, Shredder was originally going to serve as the main villain in the first film, but they shifted from that with the same logic that Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy saved the Joker for the second film.
“Shredder used to be the main villain [in Mutant Mayhem] before we pivoted away from that,” Rowe explained to Empire. “They saved the Joker for The Dark Knight … The one thing I can say without spoiling anything is, [Shredder] needs to be 100 times scarier than Superfly — who is a credible villain, he’s dangerous, he’s strong, he seems like he could mess the Turtles up. Shredder needs to be that, just significantly more.”
“It’ll be really interesting to see these fun-loving characters go up against something that maybe they can’t stop,” Rowe added.
This isn’t the first time Rowe has alluded to Shredder being the villain in the sequel to Mutant Mayhem, nor even the first time he’s compared Shredder to the Joker. Previously he told Collider, “Shredder is just a great character. He’s an iconic, classic, loved character. He’s like the Joker. You know who he is, even if you’re not a fan of the source material. I think we definitely wanna do a villain-forward film. We’re currently trying to make decisions about that, but those decisions for us as filmmakers are always going to come from the place of what tells the best story, specifically about our main characters, the Turtles.”
What do you think of the fact that the TMNT: Mutant Mayhem 2 director says Shredder will be ‘100 times scarier than Superfly?’ Do you think the filmmakers will be able to pull off that feat? Do you think the comparisons to the Joker being saved for The Dark Knight Batman film and the Shredder being saved for the second TMNT: Mutant Mayhem film are apt ones? Let us know in the comments.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now available on DVD, 4K, Blu-ray and streaming from Amazon Prime.
