Why were certain characters dropped from the first film and not in later films?
 

As the title says, I always wondered why certain characters were not in the sequels other than Casey Jones in TMNT II! Characters like Danny from the first film were not in the sequels but had some what of a major role, why were they not in the sequels? My guess is that they weren't important enough and were dropped! I never understood what happened to Keno though? People say that he was supposed to have a role in TMNT III but he wasn't even mentioned?

'Cause nobody cared about generic movie-original human characters in a movie about teenage mutant ninja turtles? I know I sure didn't.

Danny probably moved on with his life and TMNT3 was mostly set in feudal Japan, Keno could have been around off-screen or working. it's not difficult to add some plausible in-movie explanation why characters didn't reappear.

Besides that they served their purpose in the movies they where in, and would be superfluous in the next flick.

Tatsu was a good character!

Danny, Charles, and maybe Keno weren't. And Tatsu was one-note... could've used more fleshing out.

Danny and Charles were kinda significant.
 

Danny and Charles were quite important to the story.

They were the medium between two contrasts.

The Good Family (Splinter and the Turtles).

And the Bad Family (Shredder and the Foot Clan).

Danny and Charles were the middle ground - the Dysfunctional Family that would eventually heal and repair its bonds.

Plus, Danny (aside from Casey and April) knows about the Turtles' existence.
Which I think could have made a vital plot point for later films.

It would kinda have been nice to see Steve Barron's original vision of the trilogy.

Who was in both movies depicting the Foot.

Wait, what? Barron had a trilogy in mind?
Tell me more!

Barron never had a trilogy planned. Barron said there was very little talk of a sequel during production of the first movie. From what I understand, he was basically pushed out of the process late in post-production, so I'm guessing he didn't put much thought into coming back.

I'm not sure why Keno wasn't brought back for TMNT 3. It looks like he was in Surf Ninjas that year, so it's possible that it was a scheduling thing.

Casey was in the first draft of the TMNT 2 script. The producers wanted the focus on the younger character.

The Foot was in more than two movies, and Tatsu wasn't in the fourth.

Holy ****, we're still talking about TMNT 07 being canon to the trilogy or not? Give it up.

I can't see what Keno would have done if he was in the third movie. He'd likely be with Casey in the sewers playing hockey with 4 Japanese guys.

He'd be redundant.

Okay, in both movies in the live-action trilogy that had the Foot in it. TMNT is very wishy-washy about canon, so why even bring that up?

Do you think it would have been a legitimately more entertaining film if the third one was about what was happening in the modern times instead? Like a whole movie of Casey taking those dudes to bars and hockey games?

Yes, as long as we would have had more Tarzan Boy in the movie.

Casey was in the first draft of the film? I had not heard that. I know about Jordan Pwrry really being an utrom and the legend that there was footage shot of the sequence yet this the first I have heard of CaseyvJones involved.

Yeah, I'll try to dig up the interview where it's mentioned.

The Utrom material was never shot, and to my knowledge, never written. That's an old fan rumor. In early story conferences, it was decided that the production design of the TCRI lab would have a strong alien vibe, but that was about it.

The whole fish out of water idea would have been great to explore further.

In an issue of either Comics Scene or Starlog from 1991, they said that Casey was cut from TMNT II because the script was too long.

I assume Casey was intended to have Keno's role. Some scenes would have had to be rewritten like the funny scene where Keno goes to April's apartment to look for the Turtles and he stomps on Raph's foot.

We also would have never gotten April's, "I like to chuck every now and then" line. :lol: