Ice Cube responds to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually being Black

It’s a busy ol’ summer at the cinema. Amidst the Barbie and Oppenheimer mania, you may have missed the fact that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is set to release on 2 August.

Let’s not forget that Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny are still out, plus Haunted Mansion is on the way - which I’m pretty excited for. All in all, cinemas are thriving. Let’s hop back to Mutant Mayhem though. The turtles’ latest outing stars John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Paul Rudd, Post Malone, and Giancarlo Esposito, just to name a few. The film sees the group attempting to track down a mysterious crime syndicate when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them. The cast were in the midst of promoting the film before the SAG-AFTRA strike was called, and Ice Cube responded to a major long-running fan theory.

Take a look at the trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem below.

For years now, fans have theorised that if the titular heroes were human, they’d be Black. This was then semi-confirmed in a comic book published by Boom Studios several months ago. In one panel, the four heroes are shown in disguise using holograms to appear as African-American teenagers. At the time of publication, the panel went viral. I say semi-confirmed, as many have pointed out that these hologram appearances were merely disguises, but it feels like an intentional decision to present the turtles this way.

In a new interview with our friends over at UNILAD, Ice Cube weighed in on the revelation, and he had a very different take on the matter. “Really? Is that right?” he said, responding to the theory. “How do you know that from a turtle? The mutants, they [their] own race, that’s the problem, you know, that they’re minorities in New York, too, so they gotta fight for they rights too. So, they may be offended that you call them Black!”

“Yeah, you might hear from the mutant society of, you know, ugly things, you know what I’m saying, they got an organisation that might wanna get at you,” he added.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem lands in cinemas on 2 August.