Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action adaptation goes dark with Last Ronin

Paramount Pictures is developing another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie after Mutant Mayhem's success last year, according to a The Hollywood Reporter exclusive.

However, this one is straying beyond the family-friend fare the IP has long been known for an into the darker R-rated territory of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin from IDW. This one won't be an animated film, but a live-action feature.

The script writer is Tyler Burton Smith, who co-wrote the upcoming Bill Skarsgård R-rate movie Boy Kills World. Smith also wrote the script for 2019's Child's Play, from the Chucky franchise. Walter Hamada is set to produce the upcoming project through his production company 18hz as part of his multiyear deal with Paramount.

The Last Ronin is set in a futuristic totalitarian New York City. The miniseries follows the story of the Shredder's grandson Oroku Hiroto and his synthetic ninjas or Synjas killing the Turtles and Master Splinter one by one. One Ninja Turtle survives and promises to exact vengeance.

The miniseries doesn't make it clear in the beginning exactly which one of the Turtles lived, as the surviving on had all of his brothers' weapons.

The books were released from 2020 to 2022. The series was an unexpected hit and the trade paperback version became the second-best selling graphic novel last year, according to Circana BookScan. The sequel TMNT: The Last Ronin II – Re-Evolution was recently released and already has 140,000 units ordered.

Even though The Last Ronin was published by IDW, it's not connected to the rest of the Ninja Turtles comics. It's set in its own universe called the Roninverse.