TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Easter Eggs Pay Tribute To The Ninja Turtles Creators

This article contains minor spoilers for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem."

I am a person of an age where I have never known a world without the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." The first issue of the comic book featuring the characters was released in 1984, a full six years before I was born. This meant I was the perfect age to watch the live-action films of the early 90s, with repeated rentals from my local video store. I also grew up watching the admittedly dreadful "Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation" live-action TV series, relegating me forever to the embarrassing Venus de Milo status in my childhood friend group, despite my last name being 4/5 of the pronunciation of an already existing turtle (Colangelo/Michelangelo, for those who didn't clock the byline).

This is to say I have a great love and appreciation for the work of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the two men responsible for bringing Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo into all of our lives. Eastman eventually sold his share of the Turtles franchise to Laird in 2000, and in 2009, Laird sold the franchise to Viacom. This means, despite being the creators of the characters, they don't have a whole lot of say at this point what happens to them. Fortunately, a generation of filmmakers currently working all grew up on TMNT, and their love has inspired incredible new projects like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem."

And that love is well on display in the film, as the creative team — co-writer and director Jeff Rowe, writers and producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and writers Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit — made sure to honor Eastman and Laird by including little Easter eggs in the film paying tribute to the duo that started it all.

The first Easter egg is when the Turtles are eating pizza and hanging out with April O'Neil. Just nearby, a neon sign can be seen on the rooftop for a place called "The Laird." The film never explains what sort of business accompanies the sign named for Peter Laird, but I am hoping that maybe it's a nerdy watering hole for folks who recreationally play Magic: The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons. Or maybe it's an industrial shop, like in a John Woo movie where the workers' only jobs seem to be making sparks with power tools. Either way, The Laird sounds like a very cool place to be.

Paramount Pictures

Not to be outdone, Kevin Eastman is the namesake for the local high school in the film, Eastman High School. This is a wonderful honor, considering this is one of the most obvious cinematic examples of the Turtles leaning into the "teenage" part of their names. But the Easter eggs don't stop there. As director Jeff Rowe confirmed with our own Ethan Anderton during a forthcoming interview, Kevin Eastman has a voiceover cameo as the man who helps up Splinter during the film's final battle in Times Square. "He helps him out. And we wanted that to be someone meaningful to the franchise, and we're so happy Kevin was willing to do that," Rowe said. "I'm appreciative of the Stan Lee cameos in Marvel films, and it felt like a great way to honor him and the beautiful gift he has given the world."

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is now playing in theaters.