It all started with a simple picture from a Playmates Toys event. In the photo we could clearly see the logo for a new toy line based on the Usagi Yojimbo franchise. It didn’t take long before speculation began to grow about whether or not we’d see the Rabbit Ronin appear in any other form. Fans were curious if we’d see the character play a role in the current TMNT cartoon or perhaps even another comic book crossover. After a few months, it was revealed that Miyamoto would in fact appear in Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now we can officially announce that Stan Sakai will be combining his property with our heroes in a half shell for a new comic book series.
This won’t be the first time that we’ve seen Miyamoto Usagi team up with the turtles in a comic book, but it’s been at least a few decades since the last time they met up between the panels. As Kevin Eastman explains, the two properties have a lot of history with one another:
It’s been far too long since the Rabbit Ronin joined his turtles in battle. Image Source: IDW.
“Stan and I both started out the same year, 1984, and here we are still living the dream telling stories with characters we created over three decades ago. I love the fact that our two creations were intertwined from the beginning and could not be more thrilled that Stan is coming back to tell a new story in the IDW TMNT comics universe.”
Entertainment Weekly got the scoop this time around, performing an interview with Sakai and asking him plenty of interesting questions about the new Usagi Yojimbo/TMNT crossover comic. When asked about bringing the turtles back to his stories, Stan had the following to say:
“Usagi has met the turtles many times before, but this incarnation of the Turtles is very different since the series has been rebooted. Though Usagi is familiar with the Turtles, he’s not familiar with these Turtles. So they’ve got to reestablish group dynamics, they have to reestablish relationships, and there are suspicions all the way around.”
It will definitely be interesting to see how the crossover works out. Thankfully, we won’t have much longer to wait before this hits store shelves, as the release date is scheduled for July 2017. Here’s hoping that Miyamoto Usagi plays well with his long time friends from another dimension!