The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, which is set to be produced by Michael Bay, directed by Wrath of the Titans' Jonathan Liebesman and star Megan Fox (apparently as April O'Neil) has cast its first turtle: Alan Ritchson, who can be seen in this fall's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, will portray Raphael, Deadline reports.

Smallville fans will also recognize Ritchson as Aquaman from the long-running live action TV series. Fans who have difficulty remembering actor Alan Rickman's name will surely be confused by the non-Snapey voice coming out of Raphael's non-teenage, non-mutant CGI mouth when Ninja Turtles hits theaters next year.

Deadline says Ritchson will give his performance as Raphael using a motion-capture suit similar to the ones actors used for James Cameron's Avatar. No word yet on whether Ritchson will wear a trench coat and fedora over his motion-capture suit to hide his reptilian identity. We can only hope.

Likewise, only time will tell whether casting actors like Ritchson to do the motion capture, instead of martial-arts-trained stuntmen as the previous live-action movies with costumes did, will pan out.

According to Bay, "mutant" aspects of the turtles' origins are being scrapped for the new reboot. The turtles will now be aliens. Rumor has it that they won't be teenagers anymore, either. Ritchson's age -- he's 28 -- would seem to confirm that, but Josh Pais, who was the voice of Raphael in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in 1990 was 32 when that one came out, so maybe it doesn't mean anything.

[Via Deadline]

More From ComicsAlliance