Turtles like we've never seen them before: all the details on The Last Ronin from the creators of Bayonetta

At Summer Game Fest 2026, Paramount Games Studio officially announced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin — a big-budget action game based on the comic book series of the same name. The development of the project was entrusted to the Japanese studio PlatinumGames, known for the Bayonetta series.

At the same time, Paramount canceled the previous version of the game, which was being developed by Black Forest Games under the umbrella of THQ Nordic. That project no longer exists. Development was restarted from scratch, relying on PlatinumGames' experience in the big-budget slasher genre.

Experienced developers have been brought onto the project. Yohei Shimbori, who produced Tekken 8 for years and worked on the Dead or Alive series, has been appointed as the director. Western writers are in charge of the story: Shawn Kittelsen, who was responsible for the narratives of Mortal Kombat 11 and Injustice 2, and Mike Rogers, who recently worked on Invincible VS. They plan to combine Japanese combat mechanics with Western storytelling.

At the core of the story is the idea that we have all grown older. The original comic by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Peter Laird, and the brothers Esau and Isaac Escorza was written specifically for those who grew up on the old cartoon, and who now look back and realize that the world has become harsher. The carefree lightness of childhood vanished along with his murdered brothers, and now the sole survivor uses the weapons of his fallen brothers for one grueling mission. There is no longer any room here for wanting to save the city or play the hero — he simply needs to avenge his family. Kittelsen told IGN that in order to participate in writing the story, he had to convince his wife to let him work nights and weekends, as he already has plenty of core executive work at Paramount.

In the coming weeks, the franchise will receive additional promotional support. On July 9, a 10-page preview of the new comic The Last Ronin: Training Day by Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz will be released. The artwork is done by the same Escorza brothers, plus Ben Bishop. This is a prequel set right between the third and fourth issues of the original. It will show a single day in the life of Michelangelo, where he trains Casey Marie Jones — the daughter of April O'Neil and the original Casey Jones.

The cancellation of the third-party project is part of a new business strategy. The corporation is abandoning the practice of haphazardly handing out licenses to outside studios. To achieve this, they launched a specialized division, Paramount Games Studio, and absorbed the Skydance teams. Now, under their umbrella, Amy Hennig is directing the development of Marvel 1943, while major VR projects on the scale of Behemoth and the delayed fighting game Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game are being developed in parallel. Management has decided to take strict control over their franchises in order to personally oversee releases for consoles and PC.

However, there is no talk of an imminent release yet. Kittelsen openly admits that production is in its very early stages. Legal formalities have been settled and the deal is finalized, but the studio does not yet have a fully playable build. The PlatinumGames team is working with early prototypes. Developers are testing core mechanics, refining the combat, and establishing internal processes. The main task right now is to put together a working framework to build upon when scaling up the staff and transitioning into full production.

Do you think the action game based on The Last Ronin will be able to replicate the success of the original dark comic?