‘Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Images Reveal The New Black April O’Neil
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesare back in a new animated series. The showRise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtleswill reboot those pizza-loving mutants everyone knows and loves and offer a refreshing change for the series: the new April O’Neil will be black. Some newRise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesimages reveal your first official look at the new takes on the old characters.
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesis makingNinja Turtlehistory by bringing in a much more diverse group to voice its cast of characters. For starters, the character of April O’Neil (voiced here byKat Graham), who has been white in earlier incarnations of the franchise, will be African American. The cast includesOmar Miller(Ballers) as Raphael,Ben Schwartz(Parks and Recreation) as Leonardo,Josh Brener(Silicon Valley) as Donatello,Brandon Mychal Smith(You’re The Worst) as Michelangelo, Kat Graham (The Vampire Diaries) as April O’Neil andEric Bauzaas Splinter, the giant rat who trains these turtles in martial arts. Nickelodeon (by way ofTVLine) has released new images of the characters, and you can see them all below.
Interestingly, /Film contributor Rosie Knight took to Twitter to note that while this may be the first animated version of April to be a woman of color, the character’s earliest incarnation was intended to be a black woman:
Personally, I’m less enamored with these designs. While I appreciate the push for diversity among the cast and characters, the artwork here is stylized to the extreme, full of sharp angles and blunt edges. Perhaps they’ll look better in motion, but here, as individual images, they leave a lot to be desired. For instance: what is up with Leonardo’s knees? Why are they as sharp as daggers? Is that part of his new fighting ability, sharp knees? Perhaps I’m just nitpicking.
Here’s acharacter breakdownthat further reveals how the characters will be updated for the new series.
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"follows the band of brothers as they discover new powers and encounter a mystical world they never knew existed beneath the streets of New York City." The series will premiere later this year.
