Post-TMNT 2012 / Rise Development Concepts
 

In 2015, before Rise's concept was fully realized, "spinoffs [were] considered for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise", with projects being developed around the TMNT and their extended cast. Most of these projects share stylistic cues with the 2012 series as they were intended to coincide with that show. Eventually, the 2012 series wound down and out of these pitches emerged Rise of the TMNT. This thread compiles both those spinoff pitches and early Rise development before Andy Suriano's designs were finalized.

The Bebop and Rocksteady Show (2015-2016) by Irineo Maramba and Gavin Hignight:

Mutant Mayhem (2015) by Michael Chang & Jake Fox:

Mutant Mayhem continued:

I don't think I fully understand what it I'm seeing here. Are these pitches for reboots or continuations of the 2012 show? If the former, why depict most of the characters so closely to the 2012 show but others like Shredder and Alopex... Not? If the latter, why is Stockman still a fly mutant and Rahzar alive?

TMNT by Jose Lopez:

Rise of the TMNT (2016 development art) by Fabian Mense:

Fugitoid (2015-2016) by Melody Cisinski and Gabe Swarr:

Foot Clan Origins (2015) by Eric Robles:

How come the Fugitoid show concept art doesn't feature... Well... The Fugitoid?

Untitled Bebop/Rocksteady/Leonardo Show* (2015 or prior) by Andy Suriano (Thanks Powder!):

An early pitch for a reboot before Rise took form. Described by Suriano on Ninja Turtle Power Hour as, "...A futuristic Bebop and Rocksteady that had kidnapped a young Leo and it was sort of them on the run, it was sort of like The Golden Child or whatever, where suddenly, they didn't wanna hand him over to, y'know, Shredder or whomever the main villain would've been, but it was just two men and a baby sort of idea where they're just kinda committing crimes and trying to raise this kid."



Another pitch Suriano proposed centered around, "A barbarian Raph and a young April in sort of a fantasy setting", although no art is available for this pitch.

Rise of the TMNT (Jun.-Oct. 2016 development art) by Angelo Vilar:

These are all terrible.

If you know of any more TMNT projects that were in development during this time, please share them in the thread.

Thanks for sharing! Some of these are new to me.

I don’t have any pictures or anything, but one I remember is The April O’Neil Files.

Considering how Rise and Mutant Mayhem turned out, it's even more interesting to see the pitches that Nick actually rejected.

They couldn't accept the fact that Donnie is also a fighter, not a skinny tech guy.

How could you possibly know Donatello does machines if he isn’t a string bean weakling with toothpick limbs, wearing Coke bottle glasses and as much random technology strapped to his body as possible?

I don't think I noticed the concept art with the apparent daycare kids, mallet chick, fat Utrom and ant mutant. Was that one added in later? And it's probably the most unique looking piece here, any word on who those characters would have been or what that particular show would have used them for?