Photo of Alan Ritchson on the red carpet.Image by Nimesh Niyomal Perera
By
Chris McPherson
Published 44 minutes ago
Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts.
For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider's news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch.
He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him.
His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan's work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes.
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When Paramount confirmed plans to reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in live action for the first time in a decade, fans immediately wondered what would change—and what wouldn’t. Then a resurfaced Collider interview with Alan Ritchson, who played Raphael in the 2014 and 2016 TMNT films, returned to the spotlight. His comments are… not subtle.
According to Ritchson, the Michael Bay–produced TMNT movies were “the worst production experience” of his career—an ordeal so intense he says it “made me hate life.” And based on his firsthand accounts, the actor didn’t hold back on why. Ritchson describes signing onto the movie with the promise of being “just as much a part of this as anybody without the mask,” including worldwide premieres, global press, and major exposure. But once filming began, he says every one of those promises evaporated.
“They were so bad to us, and they broke so many promises. This is a whole new live action, one-to-one—you move, they move. You’re going to be in every country in the world… and they didn’t invite us to the premiere. They refused to let us do press. They even told people we refused interviews, which wasn’t true.”
According to Ritchson, the studio pitched the role as a career-defining performance-capture opportunity—“the next Andy Serkis” level of exposure. But the reality was grueling labor with almost none of the compensation or recognition. It didn’t help that the actors were locked into a hybrid “animated contract” full of loopholes that prevented overtime, meal penalties, or standard protections.
“I still have emails I sent to the President of Paramount,” he noted, describing the experience as “rough” and “abusive.”
One horror-story detail: the turtles weren’t even allowed transportation home after 14-hour shoots.
“They wouldn’t let us in the cars to go home… We sat in an empty Brooklyn parking lot on our backpacks while everyone else left, because they didn’t have to pay us overtime.”
Ritchson says the 2016 sequel came with promises of “making it up to him,” including back-end compensation—none of which materialized.
“I remember sitting there thinking: none of this is going to happen. And it didn’t.”
Why Are They Rebooting TMNT?
The timing of the resurfaced interview is interesting, because Paramount is currently overhauling the live-action TMNT franchise. With new corporate leadership, the studio is putting the Turtles under the guidance of Neal H. Moritz, producer of Fast & Furious and Sonic the Hedgehog. Moritz is steering the franchise back toward the family-friendly blockbuster mold, aiming to replicate Sonic’s global success. That means bad news for the darker direction fans were hoping for, as Paramount have put the long-in-development, adult-oriented adaptation of The Last Ronin on ice. Meanwhile, a follow-up to the 2023 animated hit will hit theaters September 17, 2027.
Stay tuned for updates on Paramount’s new live-action TMNT reboot as development continues.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Like PG-13 Science Fiction Action Adventure Comedy Release Date August 7, 2014 Runtime 101 minutes Director Jonathan Liebesman Writers André Nemec, Josh Appelbaum, Evan Daugherty, Peter Laird, Kevin Eastman Producers Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, Denis L. Stewart, Galen Walker, Ian Bryce, Jason Reed, Michael Bay, Scott MednickCast
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Pete Ploszek
Leonardo
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Alan Ritchson
Raphael
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Jeremy Howard
Donatello
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Noel Fisher
Michelangelo
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Alan Ritchson
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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