TMNT: Mutant Mayhem's Superfly Toy Reveals A Big Character Change Behind The Scenes
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is digging deeper into the roster of mutant characters than any other big screen adaptation before it. Sure, the more recent live-action adaptations produced by Michael Bay gave us photorealistic CGI versions of Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang, but "Mutant Mayhem" digs into the stranger corners of the long history of "TMNT" comics and animation to deliver a roster of wacky and weird characters for the Turtles to square off against.
Leading the mutant mayhem is a character known only as Superfly, a mutated, bipedal fly with an axe to grind against humanity. Voiced by Ice Cube, the character brings some Blaxploitation flair to the movie. However, it sounds like Superfly was originally going to be a much different character that took a more direct cue from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" history. And it all starts with Baxter Stockman.
Who is Baxter Stockman?
Baxter Stockman is a character who dates back to the original "TMNT" comic books. Originally depicted as a Black man, the character is responsible for creating the robots known as Mousers, initially designed to help exterminate rats around New York City. However, Stockman was actually using the Mousers to rob banks, and he was concocting another plan that would allow him to hold the city for ransom. Stockman would recur in the comics as a villain, but his most well-known form wouldn't come until the 1987 animated series.
Reimagined as a nerdy white scientist, Baxter Stockman still created the Mousers, but his intentions were noble and he actually wanted to help the city. However, Shredder saw the Mousers as a way of getting rid of Splinter, so he replicated them with Stockman's research. The scientist's involvement with their invention put him on a path with the Turtles, and he was arrested and committed to an asylum, where he went crazy and actually turned into a villain.
CBS
In the second season of the animated series, entitled "Enter the Fly," the villain Krang no longer needs Stockman's scientific talents, so he tries to kill him by throwing him into a disintegrator unit. However, trapped in the chamber with him was a common housefly, and rather than being killed, Stockman's molecules became mixed up with the fly, turning hm into a humanoid fly creature inspired by the movie "The Fly." Though he initially attacked both the Turtles and Shredder in an attempt for revenge, Shredder twisted his mind and convinced him it was the Turtles who were solely responsible, thus turning him into a full-fledged villain.
Why do we recap all this information? Because Baxter Stockman appears in "Mutant Mayhem" and has a pivotal role in the movie, but despite assumption from fans, he does not turn into the new villain Superfly. That was the intention, however, at one point in the movie's development, and there's evidence of that in one of the "TMNT: Mutant Mayhem" toys that made it to shelves.
The toys always reveal secrets
In an interview with Collider, "TMNT: Mutant Mayhem" director Jeff Rowe was asked whether he and the other filmmakers ever intended to turn Baxter Stockman (voiced by Giancarlo Esposito) into Superfly. Rowe explained:
"I'll tell you a secret [...] the original design of Superfly was as a mutated version of Baxter Stockman, which is why the toys, which have a really long lead time, the Superfly toy has like a sweater and a neck tie which is not a thing appropriate at all for his character."
Indeed, the Playmates action figure version of Superfly that's on shelves now differs from the version of the character that we see in the movie. Just as Rowe describes, the figure can be seen with a ripped sweater and displaced necktie, which is what Baxter Stockman is seen wearing in the opening scene of the movie. Check it out:
Playmates
So at some point, the filmmakers decided it was better for Superfly to be a new character rather than a mutated Baxter Stockman. Instead, Superfly is a mutated fly created by Stockman, along with the rest of the mutant henchman, like Bebop, Rocksteady, Mondo Gecko, and more. Stockman hoped to create a weird little family inspired by his love of animals. But they're all left to grow without any guidance, and when they try to engage with humanity, they're treated as monsters, hence Superfly's grudge against humanity and his villainous plans.
This leaves us wondering what the original trajectory of Baxter Stockman would have been in the movie and exactly why this change took place. Perhaps it was an easier way to make the Turtles sympathetic to the villains. Maybe they wanted to use Stockman as a character sometime down the road. After all, there's already a sequel and animated series in development to follow "Mutant Mayhem."
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is in theaters everywhere now.