History Trivia / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012

* ActingInTheDark: At [[https://youtu.be/T51rh2Kh62k 46:00]] in this interview, Creator/ChristianLanz mentioned that he recorded 6-7 episodes before he found out about the fate of his character Xever, namely that [[spoiler: he would mutate into Fishface]] . He only found out a year later when doing ADR for the fight scenes.

** Renae Jacobs, who voiced April in the 1987 series, is voicing [[spoiler: April's mother, or rather a monster disguised as her mother.]]

* FakeBrit: [[spoiler: When Doctor Rockwell gains his intelligence back and can speak]], we have American actor Creator/TomKenny giving him a British accent.

** Before Slash's debut his voice actor claimed that Slash would be an ally to the Turtles, and the perfect companion to Raph, [[spoiler:a description that would come to fit better Casey Jones]]. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope And then "Newtralized" happened]] where Slash ''did'' make a HeelFaceTurn and become an ally.]]

** Creator/CoreyFeldman auditioned for the role of Raphael before Creator/SeanAstin was cast. Feldman previously voiced Donatello in ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' and ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIII''. Feldman would later go on to play Slash in "Slash and Destroy"

** Creator/CoreyFeldman auditioned for the role of Raphael before the casting of Creator/SeanAstin. Feldman previously voiced Donatello in ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' and ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIII'', and would go on to play Slash in "Slash and Destroy"
** Creator/ScottMenville read for the part of Donatello before Creator/RobPaulsen was cast. Menville would eventually go on to voice Donatello in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOuSCfJgpd8 Turtles Take Time (and Space).]]"

** Corey Feldman (Donatello's VA in the first & third movies) auditioned for the role of Raphael, which would've added a whole new level of meta-humor to the casting by having Feldman & Paulsen switching Turtles from the last time they worked in the franchise.

** An Asian actor was considered for the Shredder, but the crew couldn't find an appropriate actor for the character, so Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson was cast.

** There was some interest in having Creator/JamesAvery reprise his role as the 1987 Shredder in one of the crossovers, but he passed away in 2013 before they could do so. Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson plays him instead in the three-part crossover in Season 5.

** In "Mutagen Man Unleashed", April winds up ''arguing'' that she knows how to have fun, [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender something Katara did in "Sokka's Master" and "The Runaway".]]
** In "A Chinatown Ghost Story", Ho Chan is voiced by Creator/JamesHong who is renowned for his portrayal of a similar [[Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina ancient Chinese sorcerer]]. [[WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures Who forcibly recruits three goons by giving them demonic powers.]] As a side note, the original Casey Jones, who is in this episode, was based off of Hong's character's nemesis in ''Big Trouble in Little China''.

* AllStarCast: Aside from some legends in the voice acting community (Creator/RobPaulsen in particular makes his return to the TMNT franchise after twenty years), the show also has legitimate movie stars (Creator/JasonBiggs, Creator/SeanAstin, Creator/KellyHu, Creator/SethGreen) slumming it to play cartoon turtles. Creator/MaeWhitman as April, Creator/GregCipes as Mikey, and round out the cast with lower key TV and movie Stars. Then again when Creator/AndreaRomano is working with the voices, this should be no surprise.

** Renae Jacobs, who voiced April in the '87 cartoon, is voicing [[spoiler: April's mother, or rather a monster disguised as her mother.]]

** Dominic Catrambone voices Leonardo in the season two episodes produced after "The Wrath of Tiger Claw" instead of Jason Biggs (due to his wife's pregnancy), just as he voiced him in [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2013 the tie-in video game.]] After that, from season three onwards, Creator/SethGreen takes over the role, where it is explained in-universe that Leo received throat damage in his fight with Shredder (in addition to Biggs's wife's pregnancy, Biggs also made jokes about the two missing Malaysia Airlines flights in 2014 plus sex abuse jokes about UsefulNotes/ThePope and mocking the death of a ''Bachelorette'' contestant, comments that costed him the role of Leonardo and led to Leo superfan Green replacing him).

* AllStarCast: Aside from some legends in the voice acting community (Creator/RobPaulsen in particular makes his return to the TMNT franchise after twenty years), the show also has legitimate movie stars (Jason Biggs, Creator/SeanAstin, Creator/KellyHu, Creator/SethGreen) slumming it to play cartoon turtles. Creator/MaeWhitman as April, Creator/GregCipes as Mikey, and round out the cast with lower key TV and movie Stars. Then again when Creator/AndreaRomano is working with the voices, this should be no surprise.

** Kevin Michael Richardson previously voiced General Aguilla, the BigBad of the 2007 ''TMNT'' film.

** In "Mazes & Mutants", Mikey starts talking about his ({{LARP}}) magic ring as he was [[Franchise/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]]. Cue Raphael [[DopeSlap Dope Slapping]] him. [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Not the first time Sean Astin plays a character who does that]].

* SelfAdaptation: Stan Sakai, the creator of ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'', wrote the three-parter in the fifth season that dealt with that series' world and characters.

* ThrowItIn: Donatello's stress moments.

** In "Turtle Temper", Raphael (voiced by Creator/SeanAstin) is forced to go home by the other Turtles because his temper got the best of him, but came back when his brothers are attacked by Spider Bytez, who was actually the mutated Vic. [[Film/LordOfTheRings Does this look familiar]]?

** Creator/RobPaulsen voicing a [[GadgeteerGenius Gadgeteer]] [[TheSmartGuy Smart Guy]]? [[WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed Hmm...]]

** Character bios were leaked when the show was still being worked on, and Shredder's stated that he had a daughter named "Oroku Miwa" who [[MoralityPet allowed him to stay human]]. The name "Miwa" is used for the name of Splinter's daughter in the show (Splinter's bio still mentions a lost daughter, though suspiciously leaves her unnamed). The final show instead uses Karai as Shredder's adopted daughter in keeping with [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the 2003 version]], [[spoiler:albeit it turned out that Karai was Miwa the whole time.]]

** Kavaxas- an evil dragon who shows up in season 5- is voiced by Creator/MarkHamill, who's had [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro experience voicing an evil dragon]].
* AllStarCast: Aside from some legends in the voice acting community (Creator/RobPaulsen in particular makes his return to the Ninja Turtles after twenty years), the show also has legitimate movie stars (Jason Biggs, Creator/SeanAstin, Creator/KellyHu, Creator/SethGreen) slumming it to play cartoon turtles. Creator/MaeWhitman as April, Creator/GregCipes as Mikey, and round out the cast with lower key TV and movie Stars. Then again when Creator/AndreaRomano is working with the voices, this should be no surprise.

* ChannelHop: The "Mutant Apocalypse" and "Monsters vs. Mutants" tales of season 5 were televised exclusively on Nicktoons, before the show's finale, "Wanted: Bebop and Rocksteady", premiered simultaneously on both Nickelodeon and Nicktoons.

* CreatorPreferredAdaptation: According to executive producer Brandon Auman, franchise co-creator Kevin Eastman considers this series to be the best version of the Ninja Turtles.
* DawsonCasting: The youngest Turtle voice actors are Creator/GregCipes (31) as Michelangelo, followed by Jason Biggs (35) as Leonardo, Sean Astin (42) as Raphael, but the winner is Creator/RobPaulsen voicing Donatello at age 57. Leo's follow-ups Dominic Catrambone and Creator/SethGreen (40) also count. Creator/MaeWhitman comes closest to her character April's age at 25. [[note]]If she was playing a traditional adult-aged April she'd be just right.[[/note]]

** Nickelodeon aired "Raphael: Mutant Apocalypse" in the middle of Season 5, even though it was originally intended to be the series finale, before declaring it an alternate dimension. The 1987 crossover arc aired as the final episodes on Nickelodeon instead.

* FlipFlopOfGod: While Ciro intended "Mutant Apocalypse" to be the series finale, other staff members have a different opinion. One of the writers [[https://68.media.tumblr.com/fa89f61ed498e56874305f83a0400e3e/tumblr_inline_owrsa644yj1rp2ees_540.png considers the end of Season 4 and the Kavaxas arc to be the finale.]] Character designer Felipe Smith refers to its setting as [[https://twitter.com/TMNT/status/910956947708489729 "In this reality"]], while the TMNT Twitter (which is run by Nickelodeon) calls it [[https://twitter.com/TMNT/status/911251308409212928 "A tale from beyond,"]] indicating that it has been rendered [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canon]]. They reinforced this by referring to it as [[http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Tales-V3-Final-Chapters/23776 "another dimension"and a "special"]] in an official press release for the final DVD, cementing its status. [[WordOfGod Brandon Auman]] halfway flip-flopped by declaring that [[https://twitter.com/auman_brandon/status/955529834192502784 it was up to the audience whether it was an alternate universe]] and that [[https://twitter.com/auman_brandon/status/958767414342172672 it could be seen as one,]] allowing everyone to be happy.

** Some months before "The Wrath Of Tiger Claw" aired, some scenes from a storyboard were leaked on tumblr [[spoiler:where Splinter tells Karai that she is his daughter and later it is seen her confronting Shredder about this]]. When people asked Ciro Nieli if these scenes were real, he said no. Comes the episode with this same exact scene and now people is left wondering, specially because the other leaked scene was [[spoiler:a kiss between April and Donatello that also turned out to be a real scene come the Season 3 episode A Foot Too Big.]]

* OrphanedReference: At one point, "Stockman Industries" shows up as a FreezeFrameBonus in Season 2, but so far no mention has been made of Stockman actually owning his own company.

** Dominic Catrambone voices Leonardo in the Season 2 episodes produced after "The Wrath of Tiger Claw" instead of Jason Biggs (due to his wife's pregnancy), just as he voiced him in [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2013 the tie-in video game.]] After that, from Season 3 onwards, Creator/SethGreen takes over the role, where it is explained in-universe that Leo received throat damage in his fight with Shredder (in addition to Biggs's wife's pregnancy, Biggs also made jokes about the two missing Malaysia Airlines flights in 2014 plus sex abuse jokes about UsefulNotes/ThePope and mocking the death of a ''Bachelorette'' contestant, comments that likely costed him the role of Leonardo and led to Leo superfan Green replacing him).
** Professor Rockwell's actor went from Creator/FrankWelker to Creator/TomKenny in Season 3, though this is more because [[spoiler:Rockwell has finally regained his intellect and can talk again]].
** Kraang Prime is played by Roseanne Barr in Seasons 1 and 2, but by Rachel Butera in Season 3.

** Even considering James Avery's [[AuthorExistenceFailure passing]] in 2013, the 1987 Shredder is played by Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson in season 5's three-part crossover, making him the seventh actor after Dorian Harewood, Creator/JimCummings, Townsend Coleman, William E. Martin, and Load Williams, to have portrayed that incarnation of the character.

* PostScriptSeason: The fifth season, which even has its own unique title: "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". [[WordOfGod Brandon Auman]] confirms that "Owari," the Season 4 finale, is the ''true'' series finale of the show and all of Season 5 is just side stories.

** Creator/SethGreen, who voices Leo starting from Season 3, is a professed fan of the character.

** The 4th season had a serious problem with ScheduleSlip, with the "City at War" arc starting about 6 months after "Earth's Last Stand", and having a major break during the fall. After three wham episodes, '''another''' lengthy hiatus began. Season 4 has had the longest airtime of all the seasons thus far, having started in fall 2015 and ended in February 2017, and was upped from a 20-episode slate to the previous seasons' 26. However, the final four episodes of the season had aired in South Korea in December, weeks before they were aired in the United States in February 2017. This case of ScheduleSlip mixed with those airings led to spoilers regarding the end of Season 4 surfacing on a few sites such as Tumblr, which infuriated showrunner Brandon Auman, who wrote those episodes.
* SelfAdaptation: Stan Sakai, the creator of ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'', wrote the three-parter in Season 5 that dealt with that series' world and characters.

** They made the Turtles non-identical for the first time to reflect the show appearance. Also worth noting is a line of zipline playsets coinciding with season 2, which used more ziplines and even put them in the OP.

* SpoiledByTheMerchandise: Bebop and Rocksteady being in the series was [[ContentLeak leaked]] during Season 2, and allowed people to put together who was going to become the iconic duo due to sharing numerous design similarities with two human characters: Anton Zeck and Ivan Steranko.

* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: Ciro Nieli admits the "Mutant Apocalypse" three-parter, which features the Turtles failing to stop a Mutagen bomb in a flashback and the heavily implied deaths of almost all of the supporting cast, was done so that nobody could continue this series after it was finished. However, other crewmembers and Nickelodeon themselves seem to disagree with that assessment, with the last outright [[AlternateRealityEpisode calling the story an alternate universe,]] rendering the arc non-canon. The next series in the franchise would be a new continuity anyway, rendering the attempt a moot effort.

** One piece of rejected concept art showed that there were once plans to have [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures Wingnut and Screwloose]] appear on the show as {{Exp|y}}ies of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/{{Robin}}, but instead Wingnut became nothing more than a nickname for [[spoiler:Kirby O'Neil's mutant bat form]] and Screwloose was never given a mention at all. However, come Season 4 the [[{{Expy}} Batman & Robin-esque]] versions of Wingnut and Screwloose do make an appearance.
** The production team actually began to dislike Dogpound so much they seriously considered killing him off in season two, but they declined, instead mutating him into this series' incarnation of Rahzar, who they had wanted in from the beginning.

** Mikey shows attraction to Renet when she appears in "Turtles in Time". A character voiced by Creator/GregCipes in love with a character played by Ashley Johnson? [[WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo So]][[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans unds]] [[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce fam]][[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien il]]WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse iar.]]

** Mikey shows attraction to Renet when she appears in "Turtles in Time". A character voiced by Creator/GregCipes in love with a character played by Ashley Johnson? [[WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo So]][[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans unds]] [[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce fam]][[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien iliar]].

** In the episode "Turtle Temper", Raphael (voiced by Sean Astin) is forced to go home by the other turtles because his temper got the best of him, but came back when his brothers are attacked by Spider Bytez, who was actually the mutated Vic. [[Film/LordOfTheRings Does this look familiar]]?

** Mikey shows attraction to Renet when she appears in ''Turtles in Time.'' A character voiced by Creator/GregCipes in love with a character played by Ashley Johnson? [[WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo So]][[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans unds]] [[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce fam]][[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien iliar]].

** In ''Transdimensional Turtles'', 80's Raph and 2012 Donnie [[Creator/RobPaulsen both argue over their voices]].
** [[Creator/GwendolineYeo Shinigami]] is a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 Goth girl and dresses like she's wearing the Black Magic Dress Sphere]].

* AllStarCast: Aside from some legends in the voice acting community (Creator/RobPaulsen in particular makes his return to the Ninja Turtles after twenty years), the show also has legitimate movie stars (Jason Biggs, Sean Astin, Kelly Hu, Seth Green) slumming it to play cartoon turtles. Creator/MaeWhitman as April, Creator/GregCipes as Mikey, and round out the cast with lower key TV and movie Stars. Then again when Creator/AndreaRomano is working with the voices, this should be no surprise.

* AscendedFanon: Both Leo X Karai and April X Donnie were popular but completely CrackPairings. This show is the first to put explicit ShipTease between them.

* OrphanedReference: At one point "Stockman Industries" shows up as a FreezeFrameBonus in Season 2, but so far no mention has been made of Stockman actually owning his own company.

** Dominic Catrambone voices Leonardo in all Season 2 episodes produced after "The Wrath of Tiger Claw" instead of Jason Biggs (due to his wife's pregnancy), just as he voiced him in [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2013 the video game]]. After that, from Season 3 onwards, Creator/SethGreen takes over the role, where it is explained in-universe that Leo received throat damage in his fight with Shredder (in addition to Biggs's wife's pregnancy, Biggs also made jokes about the two missing Malaysia Airlines flights in 2014 plus sex abuse jokes about UsefulNotes/ThePope and mocking the death of a ''Bachelorette'' contestant, comments that likely cost him the Leonardo role and led to Leo superfan Green replacing him).

* PostScriptSeason: The fifth season, which even has its own unique title: "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". [[WordOfGod Brandon Auman]] confirms that "Owari," the Season 4 finale, is the ''true'' series finale of the show, and all of Season 5 is just side stories.

** Creator/GregCipes is on record stating that [[http://tv.ign.com/articles/2012/07/14/comic-con-new-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-brings-the-fun the original series was his favorite show growing up]].

** Yuki Matsuzaki had read ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' while growing up in the United States, and was anxious to portray the protagonist of the comics. Stan Sakai even said that [[ApprovalOfGod he perfectly nailed]] Miyamato Usagi.

** Happened again with "Turtles in Time" which, after a month long hiatus, was announced to air on June 28th, 2015. When the episode airdate came, "The Deadly Venom" was rerun instead, and the wiki relisted "Turtles in Time"'s airdate back to "To Be Announced." It finally aired on August 2nd, 2015.

** They made the four turtles non-identical for the first time to reflect the show appearance. Also worth noting is a line of zipline playsets coinciding with season 2, which used more ziplines and even put them in the OP.

* TypeCasting: Creator/RobPaulsen ''himself'' has gone on record saying that if you have to do a TMNT revival, then you also ''have'' to have Greg Cipes as Michelangelo. Even before that, Michelangelo holds the same role in the Turtles that Beast Boy (Also played by Cipes) held in the WesternAnimation/TeenTitans.

** Character bios were leaked when the show was still being worked on, and Shredder's stated that he had a daughter named "Oroku Miwa" who [[MoralityPet allowed him to stay human]]. The name "Miwa" is used for the name of Splinter's daughter in the show (Splinter's bio still mentions a lost daughter, though suspiciously leaves her unnamed). The final show instead uses Karai as Shredder's adopted daughter in keeping with [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 last televised incarnation]], [[spoiler:albeit it turned out that Karai was Miwa the whole time]].

* SpoiledByTheMerchandise: Bebop and Rocksteady being in the series was [[ContentLeak leaked]] during Season 2, and allowed people to put together who was going to become the iconic duo due to sharing numerous design similarities with two human characters; Anton Zeck and Ivan Steranko.

* AscendedFanon: Both Leo X Karai and April X Donnie were popular but completely crack pairings. This show is the first to put explicit ShipTease between them.

* PostScriptSeason: The fifth season, which even has its own unique title: "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: Ciro Nieli admits the "Mutant Apocalypse" three-parter, which features the Turtles failing to stop a Mutagen bomb in a flashback and the heavily implied deaths of almost all of the supporting cast, was done so that nobody could continue this series after it was finished. On the other hand, other crewmembers and Nickelodeon themselves seem to disagree with that assessment, with the last outright [[WordOfGod calling the story an alternate universe,]] rendering the arc non-canon.

** Creator/GregCipes playing a green-skinned mutant who is TotallyRadical and loves pizza. [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Where have we heard that before?]]
** Creator/DavidTennant's character is an [[Series/DoctorWho intelligent and quirky being who travels through time and space and battles a violent, warmongering race]]. It's also [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars the second time he's voiced a robotic character in a GmCGI cartoon]].