TMNT: The Last Ronin imagined a universe where just a single member of the Turtles was left standing, a dark future with little hope—but its final conclusion didn’t just give a jolt of hope to that alternate reality, but set the stages for a continuation that is now coming to light.
At Comic-Con this weekend IDW confirmed that Last Ronin’s creative team—Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz, artists Ben Bishop and Esau and Isaac Escorza, colorist Edgar Delgado, and letterer Shawn Lee—will reunite for The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution, starting later this year.
While the original Last Ronin focused on a singular protagonist—Michelangelo, the remaining member of the Hamato Clan who survived and ultimately avenged his family’s deaths at the hands of the Shredder’s forces in a dystopian future reality—Re-Evolution will star a more typically TMNT foursome. Introduced in the final pages of the original series, and expounded on further in the framing device of Last Ronin: The Lost Years, Re-Evolution features the four young mutant turtles that were to be the next generation of Hamato siblings: Yi, Uno, Odyn, and Moja, now grown up and trained by April and Casey’s daughter, Casey Marie, are ready to defend New York as their predecessors once did.
“Little did we know—and much to our absolute pleasure—The Last Ronin would become a publishing sensation, a New York Times bestseller, far surpassing our initial hopes and expectations. And not only was it successful, it offered Kevin [Eastman] and I the opportunity to revisit what we’ve lovingly come to call the Roninverse in the form of prequels and sequels,” Tom Waltz told IGN. “I couldn’t be more excited and humbled to help bring the next generation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the world… awesome new stories and characters that stand firmly and respectfully atop the shoulders of the beloved legacy of their original namesakes. We’re gonna have our pizza and eat it too!”
The Lost Ronin II: Re-Evolution will begin on December 13.
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