The TMNT Movie You Likely Forgot Is Packed With Marvel Stars

With "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" in theaters, it provides another iteration of the characters for audiences to fall in love with. Of course, it isn't the first time an animated movie in the franchise found its way to theaters. While plenty of people grew up with the original live-action trilogy from the '90s and have varying opinions about the Michael Bay-produced reboot and its sequel, there's another turtle film that often gets overlooked — 2007's "TMNT."

The film picks up with the four Ninja Turtles, who have grown apart after finally defeating Shredder. It's up to them to reunite when new ancient evils emerge. "TMNT" didn't make the biggest splash when it came out, grossing $95 million at the box office against a $34 million budget. But it's worth another look, especially considering how many stars from the Marvel Cinematic Universe lent their voiceover talents to it.

Chris Evans had several comic book roles before landing the part of Captain America with "Fantastic Four," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," and "TMNT." He voices Casey Jones, who's a crime fighter in the flick. Patrick Stewart, who reprises his role of Professor X in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," plays Max Winters, the immortal Yaotl in disguise. Laurence Fishburne, otherwise known as Dr. Bill Foster in "Ant-Man and the Wasp," serves as the narrator of "TMNT." And last but not least, voice acting legend Tara Strong, who's Miss Minutes in "Loki," is credited in the movie with providing "Additional Voices." If you needed any more inspiration to give "TMNT" a shot, taking a stroll down memory lane with some Marvel stars is as good of a reason as any.

Of course, the MCU alumni are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the talent packed in 2007's "TMNT." Legendary actor Mako lends his talents to the film as Splinter in one of his final movie roles. Meanwhile, Sarah Michelle Gellar voices April O'Neil, who serves as the love interest for Chris Evans' Casey Jones. There are plenty of other names you would likely recognize, such as Ziyi Zhang, Nolan North, John DiMaggio, and Kevin Michael Richardson, to name a few. 

Still, it's fun to go back and see how far some of these MCU actors have come, especially Chris Evans. He's mentioned in several interviews that he was a huge "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" fan growing up. While promoting "Fantastic Four" in 2004, IGN asked him if he was into comic books growing up, to which he replied, "No, I didn't know comic books at all, really. I was more into Ninja Turtles and He-Man." 

Evans once again repped his Saturday morning cartoon cred when promoting "Lightyear" many years later. When discussing movies that inspired him to collect the toys with Collider, he mentioned, "It was probably Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The first one. The original one. I mean, come on. It was so good and I remember needing every single toy that they possibly made ... Thundercats was really big for me. He-Man was really big. And they made that movie Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren. That was a great movie!"

And Evans is still part of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" mythos. There's a joke in "Mutant Mayhem" where Splinter (Jackie Chan) gets a bunch of cardboard cut-outs of famous Chrises, and there's one of Chris Evans. It's likely a coincidence but a fun one nonetheless.