Latest TV spot for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hints at turtles’ rebooted origin

By Rick Marshall July 14, 2014

fx teenage mutant ninja turtles explored 17 minute featurette — Image used with permission by copyright holder

In the run-up to next month’s release of the new, live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, there’s been no shortage of speculation regarding what changes (if any) will be made to the title characters’ origin stories in this reboot of the long-running franchise. For those who don’t mind a spoiler or two, the latest television spot for the film offers up a few hints about the events that turned a quartet of turtles into ninja heroes.

“We were created as weapons,” begins the narration in the latest preview. The unidentified Turtle’s voice can be heard over scenes of a green fluid (likely, the “ooze” originally associated with the Turtles’ origin) being pumped into a tank, and the scene changes to one of a miniature turtle shattering the glass of his enclosure. The preview then shifts to a scene of the now-juvenile turtles practicing martial arts, and eventually growing into the characters seen in prior trailers and clips.

“We knew the world would never accept us, but one day it would need us,” the voiceover continues.

The preview then offers up a mix of previously seen footage and quite a bit of new material, including some fresh footage of Shredder in action, new footage from the mountain sequence glimpsed in earlier trailers, and some additional material featuring the human cast of the film — specifically Will Arnett and Megan Fox. Fox plays intrepid reporter April O’Neil, while Arnett plays her cameraman, Vern Fenwick.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is directed by Jonathan Liebesman and hits theaters August 8.

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