There will be a new masked vigilante in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequel, and he is none other than Casey Jones who will be played by Arrow star Stephen Amell.
According to Variety, Casey is both an ally of the pizza-loving turtles and a love interest for April O'Neil, who is played by Megan Fox. Amell reportedly got the role of Casey because of his on-screen chemistry with Fox.
Casey's character was created for the comics as a parody to the "costumed vigilante" origin story. He apparently got fed up with the crimes that hounded his neighborhood so he put on a hockey mask, grabbed the nearest sporting equipment, and bravely dealt with crimes.
Because of their similar interest, he later bumped into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and since then, he and the turtles have established a good and solid friendship.
No further details have been released about Amell's version of Casey, but it seems like his big screen character will be funnier and more light-hearted than his small screen counterpart.
Aside from Casey, Bebop and Rocksteady from the comic books will also be appearing in the big screen, according to producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form. "We can say that Bebop and Rocksteady are in the film, and Casey Jones is a character that we love and we're trying to fit him in as well," they earlier told Cinema Blend.
Form also said: "We're just finishing the movie but we all wish that we could put everything into the movie. We all have other characters that we wish we could have had in this movie."
The producers hoped that audiences will be as excited as they are about the new character news, since they both really love Bebop and Rocksteady. "We had those conversations throughout development of this movie but we're launching this movie now in two weeks," added Form.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is considered as Paramount's hottest properties, since it managed to earn $191 million domestically. It is because of that fact that Paramount decided to announce its sequel date even before securing a director and a cast, but they seem to be filling out those vacancies quickly.
The sequel, which has been called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Half-Shell has been scheduled to premiere June 3rd, 2016. It will be produced by Michael Bay along with his Platinum Dunes partners Fuller and Form. Meanwhile, Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec are writing the script.
