Casting News: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has found its heroic reptile brothers.
The Nickelodeon animated series about a quartet of crime-fighting brothers with about-to-be-explored ninja powers has tapped Omar Miller (Ballers) as the oldest sibling/ringleader Raphael, Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation) as the charming Leonardo, Josh Brener (Silicon Valley) as tech whiz Donatello, Brandon Mychal Smith (You’re The Worst) as the skateboarding artist Michelangelo, and Kat Graham (The Vampire Diaries) as their human friend April O’Neil. Graham will voice the first African-American April.
Eric Bauza (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) also joins the cast as Splinter, both father figure and sensei to the Turtles.
Kat Graham's father is black, her mother is a Jew.
Colton Martinez
Shes hot... but why the fuck is April suddenly black? Is it just, make everyone a person of color these days? How about we stop making these fucking Cowabunga Pizza Turtle inspired monstrosities and get back to the basics of ninja brothers seeking revenge.
Camden Roberts
She always had sort of a black appearance in the comics. Hell she was based on Eastman's African-American at the time.
Josiah Scott
>everyone is now nonwhite
Imagine my shock
Nathan Gonzalez
She never had a black appearance in the comics, until she got a perm. Then people started saying she was black.
Ayden Sanchez
>Hell she was based on Eastman's African-American at the time.
She was named after his girlfriend, but that was it.
She had straight hair in her first two appearances in the Mirage comic and didn't look even remotely black. She got the perm in issue #4 as seen here but that was after she'd already been colored white on the cover.
The only time she was black in the Mirage comic was in an out-of-continuity guest issue by Mark Bode in which she was also a news reporter.
The "Mirage April was originally black" thing is a myth.
Nolan Nguyen
>The discussion is gonna be about race instead of the fact that there's not a single career voice actor in the bunch
Fucking hell
Luis Powell
>Black April O'Neil
I guess they were inspired by Ross/Sophie Campbell's redesign for April that he pitched to IDW.
Gavin Reyes
>the oldest sibling/ringleader Raphael was not Leonardo de older brother and leader?
Bentley Smith
They're sticking to the canon of "T-U-R-T-L-E Power" by Partners in Kryme, which stated that Raphael was the leader of the group.
James Phillips
I love Sophie, and her work... but no way. Ive spoken to her about this too, and we disagreed on a few things TMNT related. I respect her work, but not her vision for TMNT.
John Hernandez
Is like what Marvel did with wolverine and cyclops, they saw that wolverine was more popular (tough rebel bad boy) so they wanted to make him the star of the show (so it should be the leader) Raphael = wolverine Leonardo = cyclops Donatello = Beast Michael Angelo = Iceman Splinter = Xavier
Blake Edwards
That’s much, much worse
Christian Davis
Watch, Ben Schwartz will end up as the Jason Biggs of this cast and get replaced around season 2 or 3
Nathan Flores
Eric Bauza is Splinter, Rob Paulsen is the voice director.
Benjamin Hughes
Wasn't some of this leaked a while ago? I could have sworn a design for Donatello surfaced where he was wearing the Michael Bay goggles he had in that film.
Adam Martin
What did you talk about
Tyler Harris
>career voice actor Oh no, Ben Schwartz is on the same career path as Mark Hamill, Tom Kenny, and Phil LaMarr! The show is doomed!
James Lee
No one seems to be sure if that was an actual piece of production art or just a hoax. We won't know for sure until the series promo, I guess.
Luke Wood
>Black men play the violent angry guy and the dumb comedy relief while white men play the leader and the genius Really makes you think
Camden Richardson
The first post specified that Raph is the leader now and not Leo, you ding-dong.
Nicholas Gray
Pretty hard to convincingly play a leader or a genius when you pathologically cannot begin any sentence without saying either "Aye yo hol up" or "Foh real dawg".
Ryder Perez
>Black people can't be leaders or geniuses >White people think they're geniuses but they can't read well enough to understand they cast a black guy as the leader
Ryder Torres
>be Mirage TMNT fan >oh boy! A cartoon for TMNT >get cowabunga pizza turtles instead >fuck this trash Is it too much to ask for some grimdark turtles kicking ass and not acting like jackasses? Can't we finally have some real TMNT?
Aiden Thomas
It's too much to ask for it on Nickelodeon during their current "Hey, remember the 90s?" phase, yeah.
Joshua Stewart
Any hope of having a Mirage-esque TMNT cartoon evaporated when Laird sold the brand to the Viacom corporation. We will only ever get bland, inoffensive family stuff for the remainder of the franchise's lifespan.
Luke Peterson
This is truly the darkest timeline... It's hard to come to grips that I won't ever see Return to N.Y. given its proper due.
Anthony Jackson
Got a source on that?
Besides, isn't Rise a sequel show?
Ryan Mitchell
>as the oldest sibling/ringleader Raphael, FUCK YOU
Ayden Powell
White people's idea of good leaders: Dean Venture, Chris Griffin, Dude who fucked a hot pie.
Neither Eastman nor Laird have any writing ability. See Bodycount for Eastman and Volume 4 for Laird.
Lawson drew RTNY but didn't write it and it shows. He's a much better writer than they are, even if his dialogue rambles a lot.
James Campbell
Superior Adam, superior Leonardo, superior Son of Big Boss
Camden Young
Hm.
"Well, we made a show that's a loving homage to all things TMNT, but with a few new twists. What should we do now?" "Go completely ape-shit and fuck it all up?" "Say no more senpai."
Colton Ross
I don't mind the writing at all. I enjoy it actually, but maybe that's my nostalgia showing. This is still one of the best showdowns ever.
Alexander Moore
That is from her webcomic based on SotO. Not a pitch to IDW.
Ryder Ramirez
Here it is.
Nathaniel Thompson
ew. Fuck no.
Gavin Morgan
>Raph is the leader >Leo is now just “the charming one”
This honestly pisses me off more than black April.
Aiden Lopez
>Teen Turtles Go
Bentley Lee
That's really what most people assumed this would be when that first "leaked," and it'd be insanely ironic given that the 2013 Turtles series was worked on by a lot of the original Teen Titans team.
Daniel Walker
It's fake
Logan Thomas
Most likely. Or a scrapped design. But it does look like something that could happen with a more humor based TMNT show.
Charles Young
That art style disgusts me on a fundamental level
Luis James
Go watch the 2003 series you fucking crybaby
David Gray
But how can we sell toys to kids? But how can we feed the nostalgia of people who only knows the original cartoon? Muh cowabunga Muh pizza muh toys
Brody Kelly
Meh This is the real kicker. Why do they hate redheads so bad?
Ryan Price
>her
Got some news for ya...
Hudson Jackson
All this butthurt over coloured people voice acting animated characters. Sup Forums is out of hand
But that is the worst Vampire Diaries girl
Charles Green
...
Bentley Garcia
I'm pretty sure he knows and doesn't give a shit.
Cooper Wilson
Mikey is way cooler (no pun intended) than Bobby.
Jack Parker
Nightcrawler would be a better comparison. I think Mikey would love being a swashbuckler
Isaiah Sanchez
What the fuck is that logo
Ayden Russell
A "fun pizza" logo.
Henry Perez
Do you think we'll ever get beleagured everywoman reporter April ever again?
Tired o' psychics and living paper and the turtles getting younger and younger
Jacob Peterson
Don't go knocking Deanie V. He is best boy.
Ayden Fisher
So they gave her the Mary Jane Homecoming treatment eh?
Zachary Torres
Yeah, you can totally see her character design right in that picture. Oh wait, you're an idiot.
Benjamin Bell
Is this it?
Mason Myers
fuck
Brandon Flores
>black April >Raph is the leader
I kind of hope it gets dropped after 1 season.
Dylan Miller
>Raphael >not the leader Did you even listen to T-U-R-T-L-E Power?
Connor Perez
I'll laugh if this is her design and the actress just meant the first african american actress to play her. You spergs really are your own worst enemy.
Brody Turner
This is just from one of the shorts, but it was one of the more popular ones. I really hope this isn't the design they use for April though, the eyes look weird and I'm not a fan of the pigtails. I kind of miss her being an adult.
Jack Taylor
I never watched 1987 TMNT, but this is my favorite April design.
Charles Anderson
>ringleader Raphael So it's garbage then.
Cooper Allen
>Kat Graham's father is black, her mother is a Jew
so a cast of five actors somehow ended up with three niggers AND three kikes?
Mason Nguyen
>no one has been swapped >they aren't the only cast members on the show What's the issue? Seems like a good middle ground, but I guess not.
Julian King
yeah user, some jewish girls really like black dick
Isaiah Hall
>regardless of the swaps there are still so many disproportionate red heads in cartoons they're over flowing into mexican cartoons >she's still a red head in the show >hate them
Parker Scott
Haha... this is what (((Hollywood))) means when they say 'diversity', jews and blacks...
Sebastian Hall
Nick always casts like this. Besides
Jonathan Allen
Pay attention, those designs are from one of the Summer shorts. is most likely what we're getting.
Nathaniel Jones
That logo is a lot different from the one we actually got, so I'm hoping it was just concept art and not the final product.
Hunter Jones
That pretty accurately describes Ben Shwartz
Jack Lopez
This isn't fun for us either user. Every time they do this we a billion threads complaining about shit I didn't want or ask for, done by people who aren't even the same race as me, but somehow I did ask for it and they are the same race. Even though stuff made by black people typically has other races in it too. I hope she isn't, but they'll probably change the design based on how other sites are reporting on her inclusion. fuck
Elijah Campbell
I'M SO FUCKING EXCITED!!! APRIL IS FINALLY BLACK!!!
THIS IS GONNA BE THE BEST NINJAS SHOW EVER.
Caleb Jackson
Why? Does he do stupid shit as often as Biggs?
Adrian Moore
No, because they're not trying to be cute and make "April" into her nickname.
Charles Nelson
So does anyone feel like TMNT cartoons start out pretty strong but over time degrade?
It happened to 2003 and 2012 seemed to be lost a while ago too,
Samuel Hernandez
April O'Nig
Carson Murphy
so fucking dropped so badly turtles is dead to me "what about baxter stockman!! as far as i member baxter has always been black or a fly, so lets change baxter to a white guy and shredder to a dog
Blake Campbell
Yeah, that's fair to say. Though personally I think that 2003 was still fairly strong even at it's worst, while 2012 was way too tonally inconsistent to enjoy.
I seriously fear for this installment, especially if it's going to be one long origin story.