Could The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Film Have Found Its Shredder?

By Nick Venable | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

shredderJonathan Liebesman’s upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a lot more stacked up in the negative column than in the positive, but there is an ever-present block of pessimistic hope attached to die-hard fans, while the much more realistic haters expect Michael Bay’s influence to make this a disaster in a half shell…or heroes in amassed Hell. Turtle power!

The Ninja Turtles may finally have their Shredder, as William Fichtner — one of the most recognizable character actors of the last 20 years — has been added to the cast in an unnamed role, but one that is “a lead with iconic statue in the Turtles‘s mythology.” Fichtner is already the classiest actor to join this flick, and definitely deserves such a recognizably evil role in a film. Granted, his taking over the Shredder role would completely shit all over the Japanese backstory, but Fichtner just played a character named Master Chang in Quentin Dupieux’s strange dramedy Wrong, so there’s probably no need for worry.

We only just found out today that Will Arnett’s role won’t be playing Shredder, not that anyone was really expecting that. (He’ll play Vernon Fenwick, April O’Neil’s cartoon-created Channel 6 cameraman.) And considering Danny Woodburn is in the Splinter role, one has to wonder how many more iconic characters this franchise has to offer a middle-aged man. If Fichtner had some sort of a physical deformity where his brain were on the inside of his stomach, and where the skin was clear, then maybe his role as Krang would be set in stone. But for now, we just don’t know.

You’ll see more of Fichtner in Elysium and The Lone Ranger, but you remember him from Armageddon, Prison Break and Invasion, right? What about Contact and The Dark Knight? What about as Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to be released on June 6, 2014? Let’s hope we all remember that one.