When the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie came out in 1990, many young fans were kind of pissed off. Sure, it was a good movie – still easily the best in the franchise – but where were the fan favorite characters? Where were all the strange creatures, aliens and sidekicks who populated the popular 1987 animated series with which so much of the target demographic had already been growing up? The problem only got worse with the two sequels – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time – which failed to include any of the classic (or at least nifty) other characters, and even replaced fan favorites Bebop and Rocksteady (a mutant Warthog and Rhinoceros, respectively) with crappy also-rans Tokka and Rahzar.
Related: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review: Extra Cheese
And now we have an all-new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and they’re once again only fighting The Shredder and his Foot Clan. Sure, he’s their arch-nemesis, but hasn’t the time come to expand the universe of the movies the same way the TV series and comic books did so successfully over the years? We hear that Bebop and Rocksteady might come back in the sequel, but here at CraveOnline we wanted to do our part by reminding the filmmakers of all the biggest or at least most interesting figures in the mythos they can, and in some cases probably should, bring to the big screen if the new movies does as well as they obviously hope it will.
Some of these are pie in the sky fantasies, some of them would actually make perfect sense in the universe, but here they are regardless: The 9 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters We Want on Film.
Slideshow: 9 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters We Want on Film
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
9 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters We Want in the Sequels
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9. Usagi Yojimbo
Stan Sakai's long-running anthropomorphic samurai rabbit comic book Usagi Yojimbo crossed over with the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoon series several times in the 1980s. It was a pretty obvious idea if you think about - samurai vs. ninjas - but it may not work now that the characters are no longer owned by the same publisher (they used to both be distributed by Mirage Comics). Also, traveling back in time might raise red flags for all the fans who felt justly insulted by the 1993 movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time.
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8. Leatherhead
Reports vary as to whether the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain Leatherhead is a mutant crocodile or a mutant alligator, but either way he's one of the few characters created for the franchise that make sense. The Turtles live in the sewers, there are urban legends about alligators and/or crocodiles living in the sewers, works for us! Leatherhead waffled between a bad guy and a good guy in the original series, but introducing him as a Big Bad and spinning him off into a Mighty Mutanimals movie after he sees the error of his ways could be a fun way to expand the new movie franchise.
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7. The Rat King
Another sewer-dwelling villain (and sometime hero), The Rat King has the ability to telepathically control rats. That's already a pretty creepy power, but it gets worse when you remember that the Turtles' mentor, Splinter, is also a rat. (How could you forget a thing like that?) The Rat King has always had nebulous motivations but it would be interesting to highlight a villain that puts Splinter in the foreground for a change.
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6. Slash
The only thing that could possibly defeat the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is - you guessed it - another teenaged mutant ninja turtle. Enter Slash, a pet turtle (owned by Bebop or Raphael, depending on which cartoon series you prefer) who gets doused with ooze and wreaks havoc on the city, getting our heroes blamed for his rampage. A teenage mutant ninja turtle without the discipline of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle would make a fun villain for a future film in the franchise.
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5. Metalhead
The only thing that could possibly defeat the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is - whoa, deja vu - a teenaged mutant ninja turtle robot. Okay, so maybe there are a couple of things that could probably defeat the turtles, but Metalhead is a fan favorite character invented by Donatello (using Krang's interdimensional technology), and imbued with the strength and personalities of all four heroes on a half shell. He could be manipulated by the villains or he could just be an ally in arms, but either way Metalhead would certainly be a welcome character in the new series.
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4. Baxter Stockman
Baxter Stockman - who allegedly makes a cameo in the new movie - was a scientist who invents vermin-hunting robots called "Mousers" which Shredder used to track down and (try to) kill the Turtles. He would later be mutated into a human fly and team up with an alien supercomputer. We think they should probably skip the last part, but the tragedy of Baxter Stockman's transformation - not to mention his formidable machines - could make a nifty nemesis for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a future film.
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3. Krang
The Shredder may be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' arch-nemesis, but in the cartoons he was still stuck in middle-management. His employer was an alien brain with a face on it named Krang, the despot of Dimension X who rode around in an all-powerful robot body with a superfluous human face. They should totally redesign that dumb-looking android, but introducing an all-powerful warlord with armies at his disposal could be just what Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles needs to finally be the wild and ridiculous b-movie blockbuster that so many fans always hoped it would be.
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2. Bloodsucker
YIKES! Bloodsucker is one of the most terrifying villains we can think of - just look at him, holy cow - which is probably why he never escaped the pages of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics into the family friendly movies or TV series. Bloodsucker was a normal leech until he drained some of Raphael's blood (and some of his mutagen in the process). Raphael devolved into a normal turtle while Bloodsucker became increasingly powerful... and disgusting. He may not have a place in a franchise aimed at little kids, but if they ever decide to do a grim and gritty reboot (it's only a matter of time, right?), Bloodsucker is the villain they should go with.
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1. Casey Jones
One of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' original and most popular allies, Casey Jones is an urban vigilante who fights crime using sports equipment. In different versions he was either a handsome but overly macho antihero or a psychotic danger to himself and others, but he became close friends with Raphael over their shared anger issues and was also a romantic interest for April O'Neil despite their snarky relationship. He's an important part of the TNMT lore, and we sure hope he shows up sooner than later.
