Paramount Pictures is going all in on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sonic the Hedgehog, staking out release dates for new entries in both franchises three years in advance. It has been less than a week since the news broke that Sonic the Hedgehog producer Neal H. Mortiz was being brought on to revamp the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. This resulted in the cancellation of the previously R-rated adaptation of The Last Ronin, with the hope to “Sonic-fy” the TMNT franchise.
Paramount Pictures has set release dates for a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and an untitled Sonic the Hedgehog film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The live-action CGI-hybrid Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film is set for November 17, 2028. The untitled Sonic the Hedgehog film will open in theaters on December 22, 2028. No directors or writers are attached to either project.
‘TMNT’ and the ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ Film Series Future
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action reboot will be released one year after the sequel to the animated film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. That animated film is set to open in theaters on September 17, 2027. With Paramount+ canceling the animated series spin-off Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and now investing in a new live-action franchise, it is unclear what this means for the upcoming Mutant Mayhem sequel. Will it be the last entry in the animated corner of the franchise, or will Paramount Pictures have a live-action and animated franchise going simultaneously, similar to Sony Pictures with the Spider-Man and Spider-Verse franchise?
The untitled Sonic the Hedgehog project is not Sonic the Hedgehog 4, which already has a March 19, 2027, release date. With Knuckles already having a Paramount+ spin-off series, it is entirely possible the Sonic the Hedgehog film set for 2028 will be one centered on Shadow the Hedgehog, voiced by Keanu Reeves. Sonic the Hedgehog 3‘s post-credit scene implied Shadow survived, possibly setting him up for his own spin-off title. With how well Sonic the Hedgehog 3 did at the box office in December 2024, releasing a Shadow the Hedgehog film in the same month four years later makes a great deal of business sense.
With 2028 so far off, there isn’t much competition in those release windows now. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will open the Friday before Thanksgiving, while the Sonic spin-off will open shortly before Christmas. Both films will be released the week after an untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe film, as Marvel Studios has release dates saved for November 9, 2028, and December 15, 2028. As 2028 gets closer, more films will begin filling out the schedule, but Paramount Skydance has already planted its flag, and other studios will either work around it or challenge these two properties head-on.
- Release Date
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December 20, 2024
- Runtime
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110 minutes
- Director
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Jeff Fowler
- Writers
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Josh Miller, Patrick Casey, John Whittington
- Producers
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Neal H. Moritz, Tim Miller, Toru Nakahara, Tommy Gormley, Toby Ascher, Haruki Satomi, Hitoshi Okuno, Yukio Sugino