Judith Hoag Almost Reprised her Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Role in Scrapped Last Ronin Movie

Published Feb 11, 2026, 6:11 PM EST

Anthony Lund is a senior news writer and editor at MovieWeb from a small village in the U.K. with an avid love of all genres of TV and film. He has worked for MovieWeb since 2020, and has been in the entertainment industry for 20 years as a journalist, producer, and scriptwriter. A child of the 80s, he is the owner of almost 2000 books, more toys than his children, three Warner Bros. Store Gremlins and a production used Howard The Duck movie script. He has built up a deep knowledge of movie trivia, iconic quotes, and will stand by his belief that Aliens beats The Empire Strikes Back and Terminator 2 as the greatest sequel of all time.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans appeared to be getting something they had dreamed about for a long time when it was announced that an R-rated adaptation of The Last Ronin comic book was being developed. While disappointment followed when it was revealed last year that the project would no longer being going ahead, original star of the 1990s TMNT movie has made things so much worse by revealed she was approached to reprise her role as April O’Neil in the movie.

Judtih Hoag became the first live-action iteration of the intrepid Channel 5 news reporter with liking for heroes in a half shell. For that reason along, Hoag has a special place in the hearts of many long-standing TMNT fans. During an appearance at the Big Lick Comic-Con, the actress shared that she was approached to reprise her role before it all fell through. She told the crowd:

“Yes, I’ve been approached, and I’d be happy. It would be a great bookend for me. And maybe that happens and maybe it doesn’t. We’ll see.”

The actress also took a little dig at Paramount bossed who canceled the project, with the TMNT franchise seemingly being skewed towards a younger audience. She added, “Maybe you need to go to a comic con and spend some time with the fans.”

The Last Ronin has been a hugely popular addition to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, albeit a darker story to many of the other comic books that came before it. The five-issue miniseries published between 2020 and 2022 takes place in an “alternate future” where only one of the four brothers survives, and is bound to seek vengeance for their death’s by killing the grandson of the Shredder. While further stories were released in 2023 and 2024, along with a video game in development, it seems that the planned movie would have used the old Turtles movie as the basis for the universe in which the story takes place. Now, though, it seems like we will not see that happen.