Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is set to get a five-issue follow-up miniseries – The Lost Years – November 2022, IDW and Paramount Consumer Products announced today.

TMNT: The Last Ronin – The Lost Years will be written by Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman and former long-time IDW Turtles writer Tom Waltz. On art SL Gallant will join returning artist Ben Bishop for the next installment in this acclaimed future saga.

Last Ronin Lost Year

The first issue will come in three cover variants, by Kevin Eastman and Ben Bishop (Cover A); SL Gallant (Cover B); and there will be a third, retailer incentive, cover by Mike Deodato.

The first five-issue series of Last Ronin takes place in a future dystopia New York and focuses on the last surviving Turtle. The series began in 2020 but concluded April of this year. It was collected in hardcover earlier this month.

According to IDW,

Lost Years digs deeper into the world of the Ronin-verse, adding breadth and scope to one of TMNT’s most ravenously devoured, widely beloved, and critically acclaimed entries of all time.”

Co-writer Tom Waltz explains the impetus behind this new series,

“When Kevin Eastman and I first began collaborating on TMNT: The Last Ronin, we were building on a very solid foundation. We had the basic outline for the story that Kevin and Peter Laird had written back in 1987, which provided a fantastic roadmap for the story we wanted to tell. But as time passed, we began to realize that Last Ronin’s story was so much bigger than we had originally anticipated–past, present, and future. There’s so much more about this world that we still want to share with our fans. TMNT: The Last Ronin–The Lost Years represents the first expansion of what we now fondly call the ‘Ronin-verse.’ It offers our many loyal readers a much more detailed look at the Ronin’s past, as well as sharing a glimpse of an exciting future for the many allies he’s been forced to leave behind.”

TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman,

“Continuing to expand on an idea Peter Laird and I had thirty-five years ago with this incredible creative team has been the adventure of a lifetime. To continue exploring and telling stories within the Last Ronin universe couldn’t possibly be more exciting for me. I’m so thrilled we get to stay and play here for a while and I can’t wait to share everything we have planned. Buckle up, TMNT fans! We’ve got two turtle universes that are both about to get seriously awesome!”

Artist Ben Bishop won’t disclose too much of what fans can expect, in order to avoid spoilers, but he did have something to add:

“I will say this—believe it or not, even more so than in the original Last Ronin series, the stuff I get to draw in Lost Years is an old-school TMNT kid’s wildest dream come true! I’m so excited to get the gang back together again so we can expand even more on this world we’ve been building—not only in Last Ronin, but in the TMNT universe as a whole.”

Editor Charles Beacham:

“With Lost Years we’re going bigger, digging deeper, and giving fans more of what they didn’t even know they wanted. This is the start of an all-new chapter for TMNT and you won’t want to miss it.”

 


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