Seth Rogen says there’s more to his upcoming “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” reboot than meets the eye.
In a Thursday interview with The A.V. Club, the actor — who’s known for his massive stake in the comedy realm with popular movies like “Superbad” and “Pineapple Express” — said the film shows he has a more introspective side than viewers may realize.
“We found a way to make it deeply personal,” he said. “It’s a teenage movie, we’re putting a lot of our own feelings—of awkwardness and insecurity and a desire to belong and be accepted and all that—into the movie.”
“And as I sit around with the other people working on it,” he added, “I’m like, ‘We found a way to care about this,’ which is great.”
The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise got its start as a comic book in 1984, which was then adapted into several animated TV series and multiple live-action films.
The new big-screen reboot will mark the seventh feature-length movie about the quirky, pizza-eating heroes Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo.
Rogen announced in 2020 that he would be producing the project. In August, the Canadian-American star debuted its title, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” and its release date on Twitter with a photo of a vibrant wall mural.
Piggybacking off the style of one of the newer TV series, the upcoming project will also be computer animated, according to Variety.
Though plot details are still under wraps, Rogen told Collider two years ago that the movie will center on the adolescent aspect of the beloved turtle characters.
“As a lifelong fan of Ninja Turtles, weirdly the ‘Teenage’ part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was always the part that stuck out to me the most,” Rogen said at the time. He added that “the idea of kind of honing in on that element was really exciting” as a “jumping off point for the film.”
Despite his reputation as a comedian, the Golden Globe nominee recently spoke about another sentimental project he’s been a part of this year: “The Fabelmans,” directed by Steven Spielberg.
Rogen, who plays Bennie in the movie, revealed to People last month that filming was “a very emotional experience” and that Spielberg was “crying a lot on set.”
“It’s very directly based on his life and pretty much everything that happens in the movie is something that happened to him,” the star said of the drama.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” — produced by Point Grey Pictures, Rogen’s production company, and Nickelodeon Animation Studio — is set for release Aug. 4.
