Spoilers Ahead for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin!
At San Diego Comic-Con 2023, we had the chance to chat with Kevin Eastman (TMNT co-creator, co-writer of The Last Ronin and The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution), Tom Waltz (co-writer of The Last Ronin and The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution), and Ben Bishop (co-artist of The Last Ronin and The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution) about the exciting reveal of the sequel to the very popular TMNT: The Last Ronin comic series.
During the interview, we discussed everything from what it's like creating a new generation of turtles, how the four new turtles got their names, details about The Last Ronin II's place in time and its antagonists, and much more.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution's first issue will be released on December 13, 2023, and it is from the previously mentioned creators alongside IDW publishing, artists Esau Escorza and Isaac Escorza, colorist Edgar Delgado, and letterer Shawn Lee.
You can learn even more about The Last Ronin II below, and be sure to also check out the official reveal of The Last Ronin II and our chat with Eastman about it, the details on the God of War-inspired The Last Ronin video game that's in development and why we think this story is the perfect choice to become a game.
IGN: The Last Ronin was one of the darkest and most powerful takes on Ninja Turtles ever made, but it turns out The Last Ronin wasn't actually the last Ronin after all. Here to tell me all about The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution are Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, and Ben Bishop. Cowabunga, boys!
Tom Waltz: Cowabunga!
Kevin Eastman: Cowabunga, for sure.
Ben Bishop: Cowabunga, says it all.
This is so exciting. It did feel like The Last Ronin was the last Ninja Turtle story, but it turns out that's not the case. What is The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution?
KE: Well, what was interesting, when Tom and I embarked on trading The Last Ronin and The Last Ronin universe, it was based on an idea that Peter and I had back in '87. We reached issue 100 of the IDW Turtle Universe series, and we wanted to go someplace we hadn't been with the turtles before. So we adapted that story, created this place, and as we entered that playground and hung out there for a while, we said, we want to stay here for a bit longer. So we did this wonderful tease at the end [of TMNT: The Last Ronin] where we showed four turtles and a terrarium and said nothing else. And we said, "We'll see what the response is and see if we can go back there and play." And the response has been overwhelming. So we get to go back and create these four new turtles in this Last Ronin universe set slightly in the future, and it's just been intensely a blast.
TW: Yes, yes.
BB: It's been crazy.
TW: Absolutely.
So yeah, for those at home who maybe haven't read The Last Ronin, but you really, really should, there's one last turtle, all the others have been killed, he's going on a mission for revenge.
TW: Yes.
KE: Yes.
I won't maybe spoil it. I mean, you guys can spoil it, but I will not be responsible for this. But by the end, let's just say that mission is complete and we're left with these four turtles. And now we're going to get to meet those turtles. Who are these four new turtles?
TW: The four new turtles are named Odyn, Moja, Yi, and who am I forgetting?
BB: Uno.
TW: Uno. And here's the thing. So we have a series in between that we're calling our Rogue One kind of story, where we're filling in some blanks leading into Re-Evolution.
BB: It's a prequel sequel.
TW: Yeah, prequel, sequel, prequel. Yeah. So what it did was it kind of filled in some of the blanks of Mikey's... Sorry.
BB: Uh-oh.
KE: oh.
It's okay, just go for it. I just didn't want to be the one. It's fine, because it's your comment.
TW: This was my turn, we've all spoiled it somewhere. So the last Ronin, his mission to seek revenge, we had some stuff that we just alluded to in the main book, that we kind of filled in those blanks, but at the same time used that opportunity to show the little turtles grow up. And we have an issue [of TMNT: The Last Ronin - Lost Years] coming out here pretty soon, and it will explain why they're named what they're named. And so each name means number one, and I know the reason for it.
KE: Tell them.
TW: Okay.
BB: Spill it.
KE: Well, I'm going to tell them.
TW: I like how Kevin tells the story. Let Kevin tell the story.
KE: When you named the original turtles, Leo, Michael, Don and Raphy, it was all named after a renaissance artist. But this one we were racking our brains forever of what are we going to call these new turtles?
Oh, I never got that.
BB: What?
I'm glad we have you here to explain.
BB: I'm going to send you an art history book.
KE: So these guys, the new turtles, we went through this whole list and friends threw ideas and then Tom one day said, "I'd like to call one of them Number One, like in Star Trek, kind of 'Number One, engage!'," and I just fell in love with that idea. And I said, because they're trained by Casey Marie, the daughter of Casey Jones and April. We said to her they'd be number one in her heart. So they're all named number one, just in different languages.
BB: They're all equal.
TW: And they're one team, one family, even though they're four. And the idea for me that came, I was in the Marines for many years, and when you first join the Marines and you're in bootcamp, you're not a name, you're a recruit and you have to earn the title of Marine, you have to earn your rank. And we felt like in this case, Casey would kind of approach it that way, that I'm training you and I don't want any individuals, we're becoming a team, but over time. And what we've been having a lot of fun with is creating these new personalities and showing their individual traits.
Wow, wow.
KE: And then he designed them.
Please tell us all about the designs and how you came up with the look for these four new turtles.
BB: Yeah. So I got the call from Kevin one day long ago in Last Ronin that I was going to get to kill all my heroes, the turtles.
You were like, "Yes!" Spoiler.
BB: Yeah. And I was like, "Okay, so that's great, what an honor." And so then later I got another call after Last Ronin, that I was going to get to help design and create the new turtles. And so that was amazing. And I got right to work, and I ended up designing 12 different teenage versions and 12 different baby versions. So we have a handful of turtle rejects that you might see one day.
Oh.
BB: But these are the four that made the cut. They made their rounds to all the people who were making turtles. And everybody picked their favorites and that's where we are.
KE: It's pretty similar, yeah.
BB: Yeah.
KE: Our favorites, we lean towards our favorites pretty quickly.
BB: Yeah, we all picked a few of the same.
TW: And it's funny, that's probably something to explain here is even with the names, you can overthink things, but the universe rules and the universe tells you that sometimes the most obvious, the thing that's right in front of you at the beginning, is the thing. And so the designs, the names, everything, it all came together quickly once we just let it happen.
BB: Because we were so excited about it, just talking about it, I just ran back and started drawing. And then Tom was like, "That gives me this idea."
There's one turtle who's got sort of... They almost look like undead, their color palette and there's like magic or portals or something. What's going on there?
KE: Well, one of the great parts about Ben's designs when he started showing us the images was creating these not only very distinctive colorations, because the original turtles, you could tell them apart by their different colored mask, but with this, it was the size, the silhouette, was different.
BB: Yeah, the main agenda was just make them different with or without masks, because you didn't know what you were going to do yet. And then we started talking about markings and different sizes and shells, and everybody wants to know what kind of species they are, and it's not specific. Kevin sent me this pile of imagery of all these different turtles and we took some from here and some from there. And they're mutants, they can be anything.
KE: But where do we go from here?
BB: Yeah.
KE: No spoilers now.
TW: Nah.
No spoilers.
BB: Last Ronin II?
KE: Last Ronin II. Yeah, that was the inspiration for what we announced today was, it's called The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution, which is the original turtles when you think back of how they were born, it was an accident where ooze...
TW: Ooze.
KE: Fell down in the sewer, exposed all four of these turtles stuck in this terrarium and this rat in the city. So they were born out of all that sort of happy accident sludge and comic book science and all that. In this version, they're very specifically engineered through the original ooze, as well as Michelangelo's blood. So they were geared towards a specific type of mutation, and more carefully, more scientific.
TW: Yes.
KE: So Re-Evolution is the name of them, so that's how we're going to bring them to full fruition, I guess.
BB: We're going to keep watching them grow.
TW: Full teenagehood.
So who's the antagonist? Who are they going to go after, who are they going to fight?
KE: Again, without trying to give away too many spoilers, because the story takes place about 25 years into the future from where Last Ronin took place, which was in 2045. So it's still a bit in the future. So we have some of the original elements, which is the threatening Foot Clan in some of those, but there's a whole other cast of villains, antagonists, different kinds of characters that we want to bring to life in this universe to expand that universe.
TW: And you take down the big bad, there leaves a power vacuum. And so other big bads want to fill that vacuum. And so in our story, they're training to be ninja, but the purpose is just in case we need you to be ninja and in Re-Evolution, they find out, we need you to be ninja.
BB: And something that's really important that you guys haven't really said is that the original turtles are still a big part of the story.
TW: Yeah, always.
BB: Yeah, because they have to be.
TW: So their history, their background, these turtles are raised to respect the turtles they're basically based upon.
Their legacy.
TW: Yeah.
BB: They're legends to them and they want to live up to that.
That's huge. Oh my gosh, that's so exciting.
BB: Carry your torch. Turtle torch.
I could talk about this with y'all all day.
KE: Thank you.
I want to know more and more and more, but we are out of time. But thank you so much for sharing all this with me.
TW: Oh, thank you.
KE: Thank you.
So excited for this, cannot wait. So we've still got a bit to wait for The Last Ronin II. So just go read the first one, again, if you haven't, because it is phenomenal. We've got lots more at Comic Con ahead right here on IGN Live. So don't go anywhere. And let's send them out with another ooze.
TW: Ooze.
KE: Ooze.
BB: Ooze.
KE: Kind of rolls off the tongue.
I really like it.
BB: That's good.
Joshua is IGN's resident card game fantatic. He's played Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Pokemon TCG competitively and regularly reaches Infinite rank in Marvel Snap.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
