Development According to
Christopher Yost, during the middle of production on
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023), producers
Seth Rogen and
Evan Goldberg were granted approval to develop a
canon streaming television series. Yost was then approached to see if he would be interested in meeting Rogen, and after agreeing, the two discussed what the series could be. Alan Wan was brought in to work with Yost. In November 2025, it was announced the series was cancelled alongside
Dora stemming from management shifts caused by the
Paramount-Skydance merger, and the second season would be its final season.
Casting, voice recording and music Along with the series' announcement in July 2023,
Micah Abbey,
Shamon Brown Jr.,
Nicolas Cantu, and
Brady Noon were confirmed to reprise their voice roles from
Mutant Mayhem as the four Turtles.
Ayo Edebiri was later confirmed to reprise her role as
April O'Neil in February 2024. Unlike with
Mutant Mayhem, in which Abbey, Brown, Cantu, and Noon recorded their voice roles together, for
Tales, they recorded independently from one another. The actors felt that the decision affected the way they performed and helped them dig deeper into their respective characters.
Splinter, who was previously voiced by
Jackie Chan in
Mutant Mayhem, only speaks in a gibberish language called "vermin" in
Tales.
Fred Tatasciore provides the voice and is credited as "Splinter Vermin". The series' opening theme and score was composed by
Matt Mahaffey, who previously composed the score for
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its
2022 film continuation.
Writing and animation Unlike previous
Turtles series, which were developed as television shows first,
Tales is a continuation of a film. This meant the showrunners had to use
Mutant Mayhem as a guiding map in development. Just like with the film, the showrunners emphasized the teenage aspect of the Turtles. The series is presented from the Turtles point of view. Yost said that they sometimes think of it as "Tales by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", adding that there was a bit of an unreliable narrator element to it. The showrunners described the world presented in the series as being more grounded than those of previous incarnations of
Turtles. The team made efforts to integrate
April O'Neil into the stories and make sure she did not feel too distant from the Turtles. Independent animation studio
Titmouse's Canadian unit provides the animation for the series. Like with
Mutant Mayhem, which took an unconventional approach to its CG animation, Wan wanted the series to take an unconventional 2D animation look. He wanted to capture a "punk rock" feeling and described the style as rough and raw. The showrunner felt the series' more crude art style helped to distinguish it from its more clean-looking action cartoon peers. Wan also felt that the art style paid homage to the
original Turtles comics by
Kevin Eastman and
Peter Laird. The series uses comic book drawings by Leonardo as a framing device, which the showrunners also added as an homage to the comics. For the action sequences, the team drew inspiration from various iterations of
Turtles, including
Mutant Mayhem, the 1990s live-action films, and
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. == Release and reception ==