TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Trailer Has Fans Buzzing Over Ayo Edebiri’s April O’Neil. Some people are criticizing April O’Neil’s redesign for TMNT: Mutant Mayhem while others are loving her new look.
The Heroes in a Half-Shell are getting rebooted once again for the all-new animated movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. A new trailer has just been released for the film, revealing the unique animation style along with our first look at several of the main characters as they’ll appear in the film. Along with the titular teenage turtles, the trailer also includes a peek at a new incarnation of April O’Neil, voiced by The Bear star Ayo Edebiri.
One character that has been given a redesign different from several of the previous adaptations is April, imagined in the CG-animated film as a Black woman. The subject of changing the skin color of fictional characters seems to always generate some kind of controversy online, and we’ve seen it as recently as the trailer for The Little Mermaid, and as expected, there have been some complaints posted to social media about presenting April O’Neil as Black in this new reboot.
As one tweet reads, “I know the attack on redheads is real, but come on! April O’Neil is white!”
Another tweet states, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem looks fun but did they just Jimmy Olsen/Wally West race swap April O’neil because she was a redhead/ginger? Who in Hollywood has a hate boner for gingers? lol Movie looks funny though!”
Meanwhile, others are criticizing the look of the character beyond her skin color. Some are saying she’s been made to look “ugly,” while others seem unhappy that the character is depicted as heavier than other versions of April O’Neil.
“As always people are pulling the racist card at any April O’Neil criticism (white ‘activists’ at that),” reads one tweet. “April is supposed to be beautiful, they could have given us a cute, black April. They made her ugly on purpose, race plays no role in that.”
Directed by Jeff Rowe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem also features the voices of Nicolas Cantu (Leonardo), Micah Abbey (Donatello), Shamon Brown Jr. (Michaelangelo), Brady Noon (Raphael), Jackie Chan (Splinter), Seth Rogen (Bebop), John Cena (Rocksteady), Ice Cube (Superfly), Paul Rudd (Mondo Gecko), and Giancarlo Esposito (Baxter Stockman).
