Just imagine for a moment a world where the gritty cinematic vision of Zack Snyder meets the martial arts mastery and lore of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a TMNT: The Last Ronin movie. It’s a match made in cinematic heaven, right?
The Live-Action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Movie
Earlier this year, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans received some unexpected news: a live-action adaptation of The Last Ronin is in the works at Paramount. The limited series, known for its mature storytelling and dark plot, will be the first TMNT movie rated R. If you know what the comic is about, it makes perfect sense.
The Last Ronin storyline has the potential to become one of the most amazing TMNT movies ever released. Not only is the series’ own Logan moment, but it also serves as an emotional and bittersweet conclusion to a series many of us grew up with. The Last Ronin might be a possible final chapter in the TMNT saga, but it could also spell the return to comic book films for one of the most stylish filmmakers of our time: Zack Snyder.
Death of the Family
In the comics, The Last Ronin is an alternate future story centred around Mikey, the last remaining Ninja Turtle alive. The Turtles and their sensei have all met tragic ends, leaving Mikey an old and broken warrior fighting to survive a New York ruled by Shredder’s grandson, Oroku Hiroto.
Eventually, he reunites with an older April O’Neill and her daughter, Casey Marie Jones. They join forces as Mikey, “The Last Ronin,” fights to end Shredder’s influence and return the peace to New York.
The story, as you might imagine, is profoundly emotional, especially for TMNT fans. Mikey, the easygoing party dude, suddenly becomes a mentor figure and the last hope for New York. The Last Ronin marks the passing of the torch for the Turtles, with Mikey becoming Casey Marie’s sensei and fostering a new generation of underground warriors. Essentially, this is TMNT’s The Dark Knight Returns moment.
Zack Snyder Loves The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
During promotion for his Netflix film Rebel Moon-Part One: A Child of Fire, Zack Snyder was interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter. Amongst other questions, the director was asked what the first comic book he had read was. Snyder mentioned that his mother unwittingly got him a subscription to Heavy Metal, a comic published for adults. The director also revealed that he was a follower of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, which Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created. Snyder even had original comics from the early editions of the famed series, which the director paged through during the interview.
Zack Snyder’s Loyalty to the Comics
Snyder has always been vocal about his love of Alan Moore’s Watchmen comic, and the director rendered a relatively accurate version of the legendary comic book in his 2009 film. So often, filmmakers and film studios butcher comic book adaptations in favour of a sanitized version of the comic and, in most cases, with poor or mixed results at the box office and with critics.
Of course, Snyder isn’t immune to heavy criticisms either, but many die-hard comic book fans adore his works because they are so close to the comics (almost frame-for-frame in some cases). For example, the warehouse fight in Batman V Superman is reminiscent of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. This faithfulness to either the story or the visuals in the comics has garnered Snyder a large and vocal fanbase.
Zack Snyder’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Movie
The Last Ronin is precisely the sort of story for Zack Snyder’s directing style. Much like Watchmen, The Last Ronin deals with surprisingly heavy themes and subjects, especially when compared to other TMNT comics.
Looking past the plot, the entire setting of The Last Ronin sounds like a dream come true for Snyder. After all, we never got to see the post-apocalyptic world that his version of The Justice League teased. The Last Ronin features a similarly hopeless setting, one in which we could see Snyder’s trademark visual flair.
If the Snyderverse taught us anything, it’s that he’s at his best when he’s working as a visual storyteller. Stories like The Last Ronin work on the same level Logan did – showing a once gallant hero remembering the sacrifices he’s suffered. The fact that the hero in this case is the usually cheerful Mikey would add another layer of character building to an already superb story. After seeing what Snyder did with Man of Steel, it’s easy to see why some fans might want him as the director for The Last Ronin.
While filmmakers like James Mangold and even Guillermo del Toro would be great picks for The Last Ronin, Snyder has a unique history with comic book adaptations that turn him into the ideal choice to direct such a momentous film in TMNT’s history. Still, without updates regarding the film’s cast and crew, we can only hope Snyder gets his shot at directing The Last Ronin – especially since we know he’s a die-hard fan of the classic Eastman and Laird TMNT comics.
RELATED: This TMNT: The Last Ronin Fan Short Is Everything Fans Want
Would Zack Snyder be the ideal choice to direct a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin film?
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