By Ananya Nrusimha
Despite rampant criticism from fans and a slew of negative reviews, a sequel to Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be released on June 3rd, 2016. This is likely largely due to the film’s surprising box office success, as the film grossed more than 477 million dollars worldwide. Dave Green (of Earth to Echo fame) will be directing the movie.
In addition to the eponymous turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will also feature several other beloved characters in the franchise. Villains Bebop and Rocksteady will be appearing in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 alongside Casey Jones, who will be played by Arrow star Stephen Amell. Megan Fox and Will Arnett will be reprising their roles as April O’Neil and April’s cameraman Vern Ferwick respectively. No other casting information is available at this time, and no details regarding the plot have been released yet.
The original film was largely panned by critics, and received an aggregate score of 21% on Rotten Tomatoes. Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly called the film a “dismal, tedious affair” due to the underdeveloped, two-dimensional characters. Many critics, like the Los Angeles Times’ Mark Olsen, found fault with the film’s lack of purpose; to Olsen, “the biggest problem of the movie is that it can never decide who it’s for or why it exists.” Fans also took issue to appearance of the CGI rendered turtles. Hopefully, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will manage to avoid the problems of its predecessor.
