The Last Ronin is becoming an R-rated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film

Taking the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a bold new visual direction has worked out phenomenally for Paramount in the past, but the studio’s next experiment with the characters feels like something that’s going to be tricky as hell to pull off well.

According to The Hollywood Reporter — Paramount is in the early stages of developing a live-action, R-rated film based on The Last Ronin, IDW’s 2020 comic that tells the story of how one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles grows up to become an even deadlier warrior following the death of his three siblings. The movie is set to be produced by former head of DC films Walter Hamada, and Boy Kills World co-writer Tyler Burton Smith is attached to write the script.

The comic series — written by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, and Tom Waltz and illustrated by Esau Escorza, Isaac Escorza, and Luis Antonio Delgado — was far darker than most classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stories and left readers guessing as to which member of the original quartet they were seeing eviscerate scores of people on the page. Coming after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, pivoting the Turtles IP back to live-action feels like a risky bet on Paramount’s part that’s going to remind everyone how nightmarish the 1990 adaptation was.

But as solid as the comics are, Paramount could be onto something with this new project, especially if it can find a creative team that has the right vision.