History Trivia / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012

* IKnewIt:
** People have guessed that [[spoiler:Spike, Raphael's pet turtle, due to his name and being a Turtle, would wind up being mutated himself. [[http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=43592 This thread]], featuring concept art from Nick Magazine, confirms that Spike will become Slash.]]
** The revelation that [[spoiler:Karai is in fact Miwa, Splinter's biological daughter]]. The fact that character bios (likely when the series was still in development) were leaked and indicated [[spoiler:Shredder had a daughter named "Miwa", and that Splinter seemingly also had a daughter, without naming her,]] likely helped this process.

** Creator/CoreyFeldman auditioned for 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".

* TheWikiRule: [[http://turtlepedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page TurtlePedia]], the [[http://tmnt2012series.wikia.com/wiki/TMNT_Wiki TMNT Wiki]], and the [[http://teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-2012-series.wikia.com/wiki/TMNT_(2012_TV_Series)_Wiki TMNT 2012 Wiki]] cover the 2012 series.

** 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.]]

* CreatorsPest: Ultimately subverted. The creators mentioned that they began to hate Dogpound, to the point they nearly killed him off in the second season. They ultimately decided to turn him into a new incarnation of the character Rahzar instead.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** 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.
** An undisclosed Asian actor was considered for the Shredder, but the crew couldn't find an appropriate actor for the character, so Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson was cast.
** 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 left her unnamed). The final show instead uses Karai as Shredder's adopted daughter in keeping with [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the 2003 version]], albeit it turned out that Karai was Miwa the whole time.
** Some of the first concept art reveals that it was planned for Raphael to be the one to have the crush on April, but later the screenwriters decided that it suited more Donatello.
** 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 the fourth season, 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 and instead mutated him into the series' incarnation of Rahzar, who they wanted to include into the series from the beginning.
** When asked on the possibility of more seasons, it was noted that while Ciro Nieli planned on finishing the series with five, they weren't opposed to doing more, even if it'd mean they would have to modify the series plan. No such modification occurred, and the series ended at five.
** Originally, [[spoiler:Super Shredder's decapitation in the season four finale would have been more obvious, with a very thin gap between the head and torso in the black-and-white shot.]] According to Ciro Nieli on Instagram, Nickelodeon caught the gory detail and censored the gap in all showings of the episode.
** [[https://www.denofgeek.com/comics/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-interview-ciro-nieli-i-feel-like-it-will-come-back-someday/ In an interview]], Ciro Nieli said that the series was originally to begin with Splinter undergoing an immensely early case of DeathByAdaptation, with the Turtles leaving the sewers for the first time in their lives and being forced to take on the world on their own. Nickelodeon, naturally, was shaky on such a drastic and melancholic premise. [[spoiler: Though Splinter eventually would meet his doom in the series proper (two times no less, the latter of which stuck).]]

* RelationshipVoiceActor: [[Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson The Shredder]], [[Creator/NolanNorth the Kraang]], [[Creator/ClancyBrown Chris Bradford]], [[Creator/JeffreyCombs Victor Falco]], and [[Creator/FrankWelker Tyler Rockwell]] are [[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Bulkhead, Smokescreen, Silas, Ratchet, and Megatron]].

* ProductionPosse: With Ciro Nieli as showrunner, he brought over many people who worked with him on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperForceGo'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes''

* {{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 ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''.

* TalkingToHimself: Done in "Trans-Dimensional Turtles" as a gag with Rob Paulsen. [[spoiler:The 1987 Raphael and the 2012 Donatello exchange some dialogue in which they insist it's the other one that sounds weird]].

* TieInCereal: The 2012 series even had [[https://images.freshop.com/00016000472983/4d12ac79d980cc547608769b35fa8d11_large.png its own cereal]], though it was nothing more than a Advertising/{{Trix|Rabbit}} knockoff, the kernels shaped like the turtle's faces.

** 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 show's first 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).

* ImageSource:
** MummyTropes
** MutagenicGoo
** OverTheShoulderCarry
** TheRealSpoofbusters
** TrademarkFavoriteFood (top-right)

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

* ActorAllusion:
** 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/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing Does this look familiar]]?
** One episode had Raphael switching bodies with a Kraang. What do the Kraang and Raphael in ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'' [[Creator/NolanNorth have in common again]]?
** This is not the first time that Creator/JeffreyCombs has voiced [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries a character]] with a black wardrobe, a wide brimmed hat, a deformed visage, and who uses a wooden cane as a weapon. Or [[Film/ReAnimator can unleash frightening, monstrous things]] upon regular people.
** 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''.
** In "The Croaking", Napoleon Bonafrog is voiced by Jon Heder...yup, Film/NapoleonDynamite.
** Creator/RobPaulsen's take on Donatello [[WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed sounds familiar...]]
** In "Mazes & Mutants", Mikey starts talking about his ({{LARP}}) magic ring as he was [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]]. Cue Raphael [[DopeSlap Dope Slapping]] him. [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Not the first time Sean Astin plays a character who does that]].
** We've seen Creator/FredTatasciore voicing [[VideoGame/SpiderManWebOfShadows a villain with a]] [[VideoGame/TheAmazingSpiderMan Rhino motif before]].
** In the SDCC 2015 preview, [[Creator/DavidTennant Honeycutt AKA Fugitoid]] makes it perfectly clear he is a professor, not a [[Series/DoctorWho doctor]].
** 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.]]
** Creator/MichaelDorn playing a high ranking official of a war mongering race of aliens. Are we talking about the Triceratons or the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Klin]][[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine gons]]?
** In "Transdimensional Turtles", 1987 Raph and 2012 Donnie [[Creator/RobPaulsen both argue over their voices]].
** Shinigami (voiced by Gwendoline Yeo) is a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 Goth girl and dresses like she's wearing the Black Magic Dress Sphere]].
** Creator/TomKenny voicing a monkey with a [[FakeBrit British accent]] and genius-level intelligence... [[WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo why does that sound so familiar?]]
** Kavaxas- an evil dragon who shows up in the fifth season- is voiced by Creator/MarkHamill, who's had [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro experience voicing an evil dragon]].

* CastingGag:
** The voice actors for [[Creator/RobPaulsen Donatello]] & [[Creator/NolanNorth the Kraang]] both previously voiced Raphael.
** Corey Feldman (Donatello's VA from the first & third live action films) voices [[spoiler:Slash, the mutated form of Raphael's pet turtle Spike]]. This is actually a twofer, as aside from Feldman's previous work in the franchise, Raphael is voiced by Feldman's former Goonies co-star Sean Astin.
** Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson previously voiced General Aguilla, the BigBad of the 2007 ''TMNT'' film.
** Renae Jacobs, who voiced April in the 1987 series, is voicing [[spoiler:April's mother, or rather a monster disguised as her mother.]]
** Minae Noji, who played Karai in the [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014 the 2014 film]] voices [[spoiler: Miwa/Karai's mother, Tang Shen.]]
** Creator/GregCipes playing a green-skinned mutant who is TotallyRadical, loves pizza, and is the PluckyComicRelief? [[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 CGI cartoon]].
** Dracula in the Halloween arc is voiced by Chris Sarandon, who played the vampire Jerry Dandridge in ''Film/FrightNight1985''.

* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine:
** Sean Astin's ''Film/TheGoonies'' co-star Corey Feldman [[spoiler:as Slash]]. He also worked with Ciro Nieli previously in ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo''.
** Greg Cipes & Creator/ScottMenville previously worked together on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''.

** Even considering James Avery's passing in 2013, the 1987 Shredder is played by Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson in the fifth season'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.

* ShownTheirWork:
** There are a few scenes that indicate that the writers have done some research, like the difference between "Venom" and "Poison", and how a Wasp dies when the stinger breaks off, though ArtisticLicense does still factor in (like the latter being a Parasitic Wasp, which are one of the types of Wasps that ''don't'' die from their stingers breaking off).
** Also, Japanese culture references are, for the most part, surprisingly accurate and tasteful, and are very rarely used exclusively for RuleOfCool. Even if subtle moments, like when Splinter is shown meditating in "Of Rats And Men"; he uses real Shintoist hand gestures (or "mudras").

* 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 ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''.

** Creator/CoreyFeldman auditioned for 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/ScottMenville read for the part of Donatello before the casting of Creator/RobPaulsen. Menville would eventually go on to voice Donatello in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOuSCfJgpd8 Turtles Take Time (and Space).]]"
** An undisclosed Asian actor was considered for the Shredder, but the crew couldn't find an appropriate actor for the character, so Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson was cast.

** [[https://www.denofgeek.com/comics/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-interview-ciro-nieli-i-feel-like-it-will-come-back-someday/ In an interview]], Ciro Nieli said that the series was originally to begin with Splinter undergoing an immensely early case of DeathByAdaptation, with the Turtles leaving the sewers for the first time in their lives and being forced to take on the world on their own. Nickelodeon, naturally, was shaky on such a drastic and melancholic premise, though Splinter eventually would meet his doom in the series proper (two times no less, the latter of which stuck).

** Even considering James Avery's [[AuthorExistenceFailure passing]] in 2013, the 1987 Shredder is played by Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson in the fifth season'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.

** [[https://www.denofgeek.com/comics/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-interview-ciro-nieli-i-feel-like-it-will-come-back-someday/ In an interview]], Ciro Nieli said that the series was originally to begin with Splinter undergoing an immensely early case of DeathByAdaptation, with the Turtles leaving the sewers for the first time in their lives and being forced to take on the world on their own. Nickelodeon, naturally, was shaky on such a drastic and melancholic premise.

** Ciro Nieli initially had a very ballsy idea for how this iteration would stand out. [[https://www.denofgeek.com/comics/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-interview-ciro-nieli-i-feel-like-it-will-come-back-someday/ In an interview]], he detailed how the series was to begin with Splinter suffering an immensely early case of DeathByAdaptation, resulting in the Turtles leaving the sewers for the first time and being forced to take on the world practically on their own. Nickelodeon, naturally, was shaky on such a drastic and melancholic premise, vetoing it not long after.

* {{Jossed}}:
** Quite a few people expected The Pulverizer/Timothy to become The Newtralizer [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130420010756/tmnt/images/6/6b/Poikjh_1559_scaled_800.jpg once the latter's toy was first leaked]]. [[spoiler:Come "The Pulverizer Returns", he instead becomes Mutagen Man]].
** When asked if the events of ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'' [[CanonDiscontinuity no longer exist]], Peter [=DiCicco=] [[http://peterdicicco.tumblr.com/post/144478005712/loved-trans-dimensional-turtles-but-was said]] that it was just another universe and that they weren't erasing it from canon.