TMNT Co-Creator Reveals Which Big-Name Actor Told Him He’d Love to Play Casey Jones in a Live-Action Sequel (Exclusive)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman has revealed which high-profile actor said he’d be down to play Casey Jones in a live-action sequel to the hit 1990 movie.

Eastman, 63, recently sat down with PEOPLE ahead of the film’s 35th anniversary to discuss the movie’s legacy — as well as where the franchise might go next — and he shared that actor Joe Manganiello has expressed interest in playing the iconic masked vigilante in a potential future movie installment.

The creative powerhouse said he believes Manganiello, 48, would be particularly perfect for a specific potential TMNT project set decades in the future from when the original 1990 movie took place, noting that the concept is based on his 2022 TMNT comic, The Last Ronin.

“I first met him [when] he approached me online because he’s a huge Turtle fan, and he’s a huge fan of the Turtles role-playing games,” Eastman recalls of Manganiello.

“So we visited a few times and we keep in touch. He sends me pictures of bubbles and just different stuff that he’s doing workwise,” Eastman continues. “But when they talked about doing a new Turtles live-action movie, he said, ‘I want to be Casey Jones in the revision of that.’ He sent me a couple of pictures. And he would be [perfect] agewise. He’s perfect. He’d be perfect for it.”

Eastman also said that he would ideally love actress Judith Hoag, 62, to reprise her role as April O’Neil in a potential new film, as she would be the “absolutely perfect” age for the story.

While Eastman expressed excitement about the prospect of potentially revisiting the original TMNT live-action world, he also acknowledged that nothing is certain given the precarious nature of the industry.

“There’s been a bunch of discussion between different Hollywood producers and Paramount and certainly fans about doing it as a live-action movie. It’s in progress. You never know if it’ll happen — [if] things will happen with Hollywood or not,” he tells PEOPLE.

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The success of the original 1990 film inspired decades of beloved content, including two sequels and an animated series. It also paved the way for a 2014 reboot film and a 2016 sequel, as well as a number of animated films — the most recent of which was released in 2023 and was co-written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

As to why the Turtles franchise continues to resonate with audiences? Eastman said it’s because everyone can see themselves in at least one of the characters, and that the core of all Turtles stories comes down to one thing: family.

“It’s about family as the center of the heart and soul of every one of the stories,” he says. “And from now going on 40 years, every iteration has included the same elements. Four turtles, Splinter, April, Casey, and it’s just this wonderful family aspect.”

The original 1990 TMNT will soon be re-released in theaters nationwide in celebration of the film’s 35th anniversary, and Eastman strongly encourages fans old and new to go see it.

“They [the fans] should definitely go see the movie again, because that movie is my all-time favorite version of the turtles ever — from the cartoons and any other movies that’ve been done since,” he tells PEOPLE.

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“I do love all of them for different reasons,” he adds, “but the 1990 first Turtles movie directed by [Steve] Barron, [co-written by] Todd Langen [and worked on by] Jim Henson, it’s the perfect Turtles movie.”

The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film will be re-released in theaters nationwide for five days from Aug. 16-21.