The Last Ronin: Why TMNT's Darkest Story Is Becoming A Game And Not A Movie

The bleak future of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle universe seen in IDW Publishing's "The Last Ronin" miniseries is about to make the leap from the comic book page to the screen, though not in the form of a movie or TV adaptation. Instead, "The Last Ronin" is in the early stages of being reimagined as a video game, and TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman recently spoke about why it's the perfect medium for the story.

"Nickelodeon, who has always been a great partner and great friend to all the things in letting us do what we do, they really didn't wanna take 'The Last Ronin' concept into full-on mainstream, like a big live-action movie, something to compete with 'Mutant Mayhem,'" Eastman told ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic-Con 2023. "...They collectively came up with the idea of a video game because we could go all the way there."

It makes sense that Nickelodeon, which holds the rights to the TMNT franchise, would be hesitant to adapt "The Last Ronin" as a mainstream feature. The five-issue saga offers readers a bloody, nightmarish vision of a dark, dystopian New York. It's a harrowing read for anyone who grew up with the Heroes in a Halfshell as, by the last page, all of the turtles, as well as Splinter and Casey Jones, suffer brutal deaths. The series was written by Eastman and Tom Waltz with art by Ben Bishop, Esau and Isaac Escorza.

As Kevin Eastman noted, translating "The Last Ronin" to video game form over a movie or show should allow the developers to provide a more faithful adaptation of the comics and go "all the way there." The relentlessly grim version of the TMNT world featured in the books would be hard to market to audiences more accustomed to the kid-friendly fare that casual fans are more familiar with. By not forcing the adaptation to cater to a mass audience, the game's designers won't need to worry about upsetting the franchise's younger fans.

But beyond being able to accurately portray the books' violence, a video game can also offer more time to explore the lore of "The Last Ronin." While the series only made its debut in late 2020, it proved to be an instant success and has already spawned a prequel miniseries, "The Last Ronin: The Lost Years," and a one-shot special. A sequel series, "The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution," is set to drop later this year. The world of "The Last Ronin" has already become extensive enough that it would be hard to properly explore it all in one movie's runtime. A video game, however, will allow fans to really settle into the comic's twisted environments without having to sacrifice any of the brutality of the books.

Details are scarce as far as what the game will actually play like, but a gritty world in the style of the "Arkham" games could provide the perfect backdrop for a story like "The Last Ronin." However it ends up, Eastman's comments on the project were promising. "The stuff we've seen so far is goosebump city," he said. "It's really phenomenal. They took stuff right out of the pages of the comic book."