One day after the reveal of Earth to Echo filmmaker Dave Green replacing Jonathan Liebesman on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, we have confirmation that classic TMNT villains Bebop and Rocksteady will be included in the sequel. Of course, we don't know much more than that, since the script is being written by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec as we speak. But producers Bradley Fuller and Andrew Form confirmed the news during the Comic Con Experience in Brazil. Here's what they had to say below, revealing that they're trying to fit in Casey Jones as well.
"We can say that Bebop and Rocksteady are in the film, and Casey Jones is a character that we love and we're trying to fit him in as well."
Both Bebop and Rocksteady were not featured in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman. The characters were later designed by Peter Laird during negotiations with Playmates, since they wanted more characters to release in their action figure line. They were also featured in the Archie Adventures comic books and the subsequent video games. They quickly became fan favorites after debuting in the 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated TV series. Concept art images released in October reveal that these characters were being considered for the first movie, but they didn't end up being used.
We still don't know if Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stars Megan Fox (April O'Neil) and Will Arnett (Vernon Fenwick) will reprise their roles for the sequel, but hopefully we find out more about this follow-up very soon.