The New York Times bestselling graphic novel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, is getting a sequel. The Last Ronin 2 was teased during a recent conversation between Capes and Tights co-founder Justin Soderberg and TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman.
The first The Last Ronin five-issue miniseries hit shelves between October 2020 and April 2022, followed up by the five-issue series The Last Ronin – The Lost Years which debuted in January. Second issue coming on March 15, 2023. However, The Last Ronin won’t end with either of these two series according to Eastman.
“Tom and I were building out what we call the Roninverse we were working off an incredibly strong 20 page outline that Pete and I wrote in 1987. So when we’re building out the Roninverse and cobbling together the pieces that we wanted in the story, there was lots of pieces that we set aside that didn’t fit. It’d be great to go back again and visit that place or that place or there and tell more about it. But we really didn’t know how it would be received, if we would get that chance,” said Eastman. “So when it did as well as it did, and it was suggested we look at doing a second series, The Last Ronin 2.”
The original miniseries’ creative team of Eastman, Tom Waltz, Esau Escorza & Issac Escorza, Ben Bishop, and Luis Antonio Delgado will return for the second volume. The Last Ronin 2 will focus around the four new turtles introduced briefly at the end of the first volume and explored during The Lost Years.
“[The new turtles] will be the main focus of The Last Ronin 2,” said Eastman. “They are 15 years old at the end of issue five and what you see at the end of issue five leads directly into The Last Ronin 2 which features Casey Marie as their Sensei and April as the Grandmother.”
The current pace of The Lost Years puts the fifth issue dropping in the fall 2023, allowing 2024 to be the year of The Last Ronin 2.
