‘Ninja Turtles 2’ update: New characters, Jeremy Howard on Donatello

The sequel for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot is set to start production in April and fans are clamoring to learn details. Producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller spoke to JoBlo and actor Jeremy Howard gave an interview to CBM on Donatello.

Fans want to know the possibility of comic book characters Casey Jones, Bebop, Rocksteady and Krang appearing in the sequel: “They’re on the table. Those are characters we talked about putting in the first one and we weren’t able to fit them all in. There’s a tremendous amount of artwork that was released from the first movie that we didn’t use with Bebop and Rocksteady and Krang and everything. Those were characters we would have loved to put in the first one. Luckily, we are talking about most of those characters for TMNT 2. We start shooting that movie in April so we’re in heavy prep right now.”

Howard talked to CBM about the casting process describing the action: “Pretty intense. We got to New York in April, and we didn’t start shooting until May, so we had a month for training. We went in five days a week to learn karate, and then individual training with our weapons. By the time filming rolled around, we knew what we were doing. At the same time, they had such an amazing stunt team that was training us and they knew everything far better than we did. When it came time for the action, they wouldn’t let us do a whole lot. Not that we could do a lot, but the stunt team was amazing. As an actor, it was great to know how they did all those things they did.”

The actor confirms he wants to see the added characters as well, as mentioned above.

“We’ve heard they are going to bring new characters in, like Bebop and Rocksteady. I’d love to see more interaction with the Turtles, more quiet moments where we get to see how they think and what makes them tick. At the same time, I’d like to see more ninja artistry on screen. There’s a lot more skill we could see in the action sequences. Everybody has such a specific skill with their weapons. I don’t think we saw that come out as much as we had hoped with all the training we did. Again, it comes down to time and budget. I think we have the opportunity to slow things down and get specific with their skills and the way they think.”

Check out CBM’s full interview with Howard – HERE

TMNT 2 will be directed by Dave Green (Earth to Echo) with lead actors Megan Fox and Will Arnett both expected to return.

The sequel is set to hit theaters on June 3rd, 2016.