Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Trailer Brings ‘I Like Turtles’ Zombie Kid Back From the Dead, 16 Years Later

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

16 years ago, a ‘zombie kid’ sparked one of the most popular memes the internet would ever know by uttering the simple phrase “I like turtles” live on the news. Now, he’s back, reprising his ‘role’ as one of the undead to promote the imminent launch of animated movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Paramount has released a recreation of the classic ‘I like turtles’ meme with the very same person who spawned it in 2007. 16 years later Jonathan still likes turtles, it seems, and zombie face pain. Watch the clip in the video below:

Ahead of its release in theaters next week, it looks like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is already greenlit for not just a film sequel, but a Paramount+ series as well.

As reported by Variety, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon movies are developing both a sequel film and a two-season, 2D animated series that will serve as a “bridge” between the two movies. The series will be entitled “Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and will run on, no surprise, Paramount+ at an as-yet-unannounced date. All four turtles – Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu and Brady Noon – will return to voice the same roles they held in the film.

We spoke to Rowe recently at San Diego Comic-Con where he lightly teased his involvement in a sequel film, as well as discussed casting the turtles and characters like Splinter and April, and his animation inspirations from films series like Spider-Verse.

You can catch up on all the other news coming out of Comic-Con in our roundup of everything announced. And for more TMNT, we’ve got multiple trailers showing off the turtles and various villains, as well as heard details about the ways in which the upcoming film pays tribute to the original comics.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.