Summary

• The Turtles face new challenges as teenage heroes in New York City, blending action and comedy in a comic-inspired animation style.
• Co-showrunners Wan and Yost drew inspiration from Mutant Mayhem for the teenage-focused storylines and character growth.
• The addition of Ayo Edebiri's April brings a fresh dynamic to the team, integrating her fully into the Turtles' adventures.

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is set after the events of Mutant Mayhem. Now, heroes Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey are lauded as heroes by the city. Attempting to balance their dual lives as teenagers and the heroes of New York City, the Turtles will face a new villain unlike anything they've been up against before, with new challenges that push them to their limits.

Ayo Edebiri reprise their roles from Mutant Mayhem.

Screen Rant interviewed the Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-showrunners Alan Wan and Chris Yost. Wan discussed how the animation style was inspired by Mutant Mayhem and working with Ayo. Yost explained how Mutant Mayhem is their guiding light and what inspired this new version of the Turtles' antagonist, Bishop.

Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Takes Its Cues From Mutant Mayhem

Mutant Mayhem stood out among other animation projects because of the style of animation. While Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is not the same style, it takes inspiration from the essence of the Mutant Mayhem animation. Both are inspired by the drawings that teenagers do in their notebooks.

Alan Wan: We actually directly took things from Mutant Mayhem. We want this to have a teenage perspective to it. We are trying to mimic drawings that people do on their notebooks and make them move. So we truly embrace a less polished look to it. In a normal, modern day 2D animation where people all look for the most polished look, we were like, No, we want it rough. We want it to look almost like a kid drew it. Even the way we choose our acting facial expressions to some of the character posing, we embrace the rougher edges.

Chris, what parts of this world were you most excited to explore that weren't touched upon in the movie?

Chris Yost: I mean, the movie is always our guiding light. The movie's, our touchstone. Seth Rogan, Evan Goldberg, Jeff Rowe made something incredible and people really responded to it and loved it. So our goal was really just to keep that going and again, do something different. We don't want to just see the same thing over and over again. So our mission statement really was, keep that vibe, keep that energy, keep that kind of really teenage centric world going, and then put them in new and exciting challenges.

It's like, how can we challenge these kids like never before? More or less what we came up with was like, well, we've seen them work together for 40 years now. We've seen them as brothers as a team. Let's split 'em up. Let's tear 'em apart. Let's bust up that squad and see how they do on their own. I think that's been a lot of the fun of it for us.

Each of the four Turtles has their own adventure which allows them to grow outside of their dynamic with their brothers. Wan and Yost revealed which of the Turtles arcs surprised and delighted them the most.

Alan Wan: For me, it was the Donnie arc. I most like it because in the flashback we had the most interesting eight bit look and it kind of matches him, but he's not the super techy. He's actually just a kid who's into nerd stuff, which is great.

Chris Yost: I was going to say Raph because he has the stretch a muscle that he normally doesn't do, but I think Mikey's arc. Mikey having to be the responsible one and really step up and do some fairly responsible stuff in the funniest way possible it ended up we got some good stuff out of that. And we got Pigeon Pete.

Pigeon Pete is insane. I just need an entire spin-off about Pigeon Pete's adventures.

Chris Yost: Oh, just you, wait. You haven't seen nothing yet.

What inspired this version of Bishop?

Chris Yost: I worked on the 2003 Ninja Turtle Show, which included several Bishop heavy arcs. Bishop was a very serious, very man in black character, and I love that version of it. This one, we wanted to do something very different with it. We wanted to give the Turtles a villain to deal with that was incredibly different than Superfly and we wanted robots. So we really figured out how can we flip the script on Bishop and give a version of it that is very different but ends up in a weirdly similar place. So that was kind of the challenge.

Integrating Ayo Edebiri's April Into Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Wan explained how they wanted to integrate April fully into the team by helping the Turtles on their missions. He also praised Edebiri comedy and her ability to tap into the teenage vibe. Yost described Edebiri as "one of the smartest actors I've had the pleasure to work with."

Alan Wan: I think obviously she worked on the film, so we had a direct transfer and the way we treat her in the show is pretty much exactly the same as how her character [is treated] in the movie. In previous version, there's always a weird seperation. There's an April thing, but right now I feel like we integrated her into a way where she is really part of it.

The way how she's involved herself in all the adventures. I mean, Ayo obviously is amazing when it comes to all the comedy and she fits that teenage vibe once we have 'em together the chemistry is awesome. I thought the jokes were super funny. So yeah, I had a lot of fun actually working with this version of April.

Chris Yost: Honestly, Ayo is a genius dude. It's weird. When we started working with her to now, I think she's won every award on the planet and well deserved. She is one of the smartest actors I've had the pleasure to work with and she brings so much of herself to it too. It's been nothing but a delight.

You are both very familiar with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What about this version stands out for you versus the past versions you worked on?

Alan Wan: This view is the most teenage. The aspect of teenager is highlighted the most. The comedy, the way how the characters behave, and the general vibe of entire show, it has a authentic teenage aspect to it. It is like a Seth Rogan movie and yeah, I thought that's the most different for me,

Chris Yost: Honestly, it's not so bad to follow a critically acclaimed beloved movie and just keep going with that tone. I think that April, all the kids, really just kind bringing out the humanness of them has really been, not the challenge but the assignments. We know that the Turtles are going to have great action sequences. We know they're going to be funny, we know they're going to do all the Turtle stuff, right?

But let's really embrace the humanity of it. Let's see that from April. Let's see that from the kids. Let's see that from Splinter. That's really been what has set this one kind of apart. 2003 was more of a comic book thing. 2012 was crazy and did everything and I loved it. Rise was its own thing, but this one really is just really focusing on that teenage heart.

About Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Turtles, as teenagers, deal with their new life as heroes while also dealing with the pressures of going to high school in New York City.

Check out our other Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles interviews here:

• Micah Abbey, Nicolas Cantu & Brady Noon
• SDCC Cast Interview

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuts on Paramount+ on August 9.

Source: Screen Rant Plus