Nickelodeon has announced that its new 26-episode Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series will debut in the fourth quarter of 2012. The cable channel paid $60 million for worldwide rights to the TMNT franchise (see “DBZK, Voltron, TMNT Toons”). Once the new computer-animated cartoon series debuts, Nickelodeon plans to help reintroduce a range of TMNT toys into the marketplace. Paramount, like Nickelodeon a member of the Viacom family, has a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature film in development.

 

Ciro Nieli, an executive producer of the new TMNT series, told the Wall Street Journal that the new series would be different from previous incarnations of the Turtles. The four human/turtle hybrids with the names of Renaissance masters will be distinguished by more than just different colored by bandannas. Nieli also told the Journal that the new series would put even more stress on the Turtles’ martial arts abilities.