Sources say the producers of the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies are looking to re-energize the franchise by looking into re-designing the over 35 year old characters after fans were critical of the overly complicated ones from the 2014 and 2016 movies that also influenced their redesign in the 2018 prequel cartoon.

“With the success of Sonic the Hedgehog, we finally understand how important it is to pay attention to the consensus of fans who have been with these IP’s from the beginning.” said an executive at Paramount. (Viacom owns the Nickelodeon brand that owns the TMNT and shares it with Paramount, also owned by Viacom.)

They went on to say that they’ll be returning to the classic characters’ designs that fans love. However, they admit they still need to keep the characters updated for modern audiences.

“We found a compromise. One that we think will satisfy long-time fans while attracting the next generation, which is why we’re… swapping the masks.”

For clarification: going forward, the next TMNT properties will feature the same four Ninja Turtles you loved growing up but each of their masks will be a new color.

This producer went on to explain, “Not necessarily any new colors. It’s the same four colors they’ve always worn but they’ll each wear a different one of those four colors. There was one point in the development process where we tested eight new colors on each of the Turtles, but ultimately we decided fans were never going to accept it. Michelangelo was never going to look right in a magenta mask, but the team could accept him wearing purple more for some reason. In the end, we gave him blue.”

They wouldn’t reveal if any other beloved TMNT characters like Splinter or April would be getting redesigns but they did offer an exclusive update on Krang:

“For years we’ve just accepted Krang would be sort of pink like the human brain… but you know, what if he was green? Just think of the thematics of that? There’s duality in there because the Turtles are also green under the masks. It brings a more psychological element to the TMNT brand that we haven’t seen before.” added a CGI artist.

Currently IDW, who publishes the comics, is 100+ issues deep into their run since re-igniting the brand in 2011. They’ve been notified of the changes in the film and TV divisions at Paramount but haven’t gotten any mandates to change the masks in the comics.

“We just introduced the fifth turtle, Jennika, in a very recent story arc and we gave her a yellow mask. I think it would be confusing to readers if that changed just to provide synergy with the movies. But, I guess if we really had to, we could write in a scenario where the change was influenced by the plot.” explained the IDW editor.

Now it’s your turn. What do YOU think of the changes? Keep it civil in the comments!

If you haven’t figured it out by now, this is an elaborate and genius April Fool’s Day prank perpetrated by Brad. It’s even more of a gift to the world because he NEVER writes articles on this site anymore. So, you better fucking appreciate this.