You know Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo, but what do you know about their many enemies? The trailer for the new animated movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem features classic TMNT villains and mutants. However, instead of focusing on the Shredders and the Foot Clans, the film sees the Turtles confront a group of real mutants.
Don’t worry if you don’t know Ray Filet from Mondo Gecko. We’re here to smash all of the movie’s mutant characters and explore the real brains behind this NYC battle.
We assume that most TMNT fans know this iconic duo. Bebop (Seth Rogen) and Rocksteady (John Cena) are probably some of the most recognizable mutant villains the Turtles have fought over the years. It all started with two punk outlaws from New York who were turned into super-powered mutants by the Krang or the Shredder (depending on which incarnation of the franchise you prefer). They are not particularly smart, but strong enough to be a thorn in our hero’s side. If there was a mutant war going on, these two would gladly be in the middle of things.
Genghis Buress (Hannibal Buress) is the leader of a rival mutant faction known as the Punk Frogs. Like sea turtles, these mutants were once normal frogs before they were exposed to mutagens and turned into something more. Punk Frogs were originally created by Shredder with names inspired by historical great conquerors rather than renaissance artists (Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Napoleon Bonaparte, etc.). The exact circumstances of their creation vary from series to series, but the most important detail is that the punk frogs start out as enemies of the turtles before realizing that they are actually fighting on the same side.
Leatherhead (Rose Byrne) is one of the more famous TMNT mutants as he/she is just a giant alligator wearing a cowboy hat. We suspect the Turtles are in for a big fight once Leatherhead takes the stage in Mutant Mayhem. However, unlike most TMNT villains, the specifics of Leatherhead’s rivalry with the Turtles varies from version to version. In various manga and animated series, there is not even a consensus on whether Leatherhead was originally a crocodile or a man. Usually, the turtles manage to overcome the rivalry and befriend the overgrown reptile, but we’ll see if that works out in the new movie.
Mondo Gekko (Paul Rudd) is one of TMNT’s oldest friends and allies. If he is the villain in the new movie, we doubt it will last long. Originally a human skateboarder and heavy metal musician, Mondo turned into a humanoid gecko after being exposed to a mutagen. In some versions of the Mondo myth, Gekko first joined the Foot Clan, but soon betrayed and devoted himself to the Turtles. He was especially close to Michelangelo.
Ray Fillet (Post Malone) was once a marine biologist named Jack Finney who was accidentally exposed to mutagens after investigating an illegal toxic waste dump. This turned him into a humanoid manta ray. Ray eventually became a mutant superhero and, along with Mondo Gekko, led a team called the Mighty Mutanimals (they had a short-lived comic book spin-off in the early 90s). Ray is another character who is usually a friend of the Turtles, not their enemy, so any rivalry between him and our heroes in the mutant chaos is doomed to be short-lived.
Wingnut (Natasia Demetriou) is a bat-like alien who is rarely seen without his symbiotic partner, Screw. They are not mutants, but the last two survivors of a world destroyed by the Krang. However, their roles in the franchise vary greatly depending on whether you read the manga or watch the animated series. Originally created as members of the heroic team Mighty Mutanimals, Wingnut and Screwloose were depicted as child kidnapping villains in X-Dimension in the 1987 cartoon.
Mutant Mayhem revolves around a war between mutants in New York, and you can bet that Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) is behind all the chaos. Stockman is a brilliant scientist specializing in biology and cybernetics. Not only is he himself responsible for creating many mutants (often in the service of the Krang or Shredder), but he inevitably becomes a mutant himself when he transforms into a half-man, half-fly monster. As if that wasn’t enough, Stockman created the Mouser robots that always make life difficult for our heroes.
Maya Rudolph voices a character named Cynthia Utrom in Mutant Mayhem. Although she is not an existing TMNT character, her name says everything we need to know about her.
The Utroms are a warlike alien race from Dimension X. Their most famous member is Krang, a little pink balloon who likes to boss Shredder around. The name is a dead sale, Cynthia is actually Utrom wearing one of their signature robot disguises. She might even be a Krang herself.
Cynthia is almost certainly the inspiration behind many of the mutant villains featured in the new film, and the Turtles will be fighting a very real threat to humanity as they fight their way through Bebop, Rocksteady, Ray Filet and more. Time for pizza power.
For more on TMNT, visit the full line-up of Mutant Mayhem and check out Paramount Pictures’ villain-themed spin-off.
Jesse is IGN’s suave staff writer. Follow @jschedeen on Twitter and let him borrow a machete in your intellectual jungle.
Post time: Mar-07-2023