The producers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, the inevitable sequel to Michael Bay’s reboot of the often-popular comic book franchise, have found a new actor to climb into the big CGI Predator costume and menace a bunch of stunt performers covered in ping-pong balls. Brian Tee has been cast in the upcoming film as The Shredder, leader of the sinister and/or radical Foot Clan, and the Turtles’ most famous and pointy antagonist. By taking on the role, Tee will be following in the footsteps of such turtle-soup-loving luminaries as James Saito, the late James Avery, and Tohoru Masamune, who’s apparently been replaced after playing the character in the 2014 film. That’s a shame, in so far as Masamune once gave an interview in which he proved his Turtles sewer cred by name-dropping not only the Triceratons, but also Honeycutt the Fugitoid, which is the kind of dedication to craft rarely seen in portrayers of malignant, walking Cuisinarts.
This isn’t Tee’s first trip to the hard-to-kill-dude-with-claws-for-hands rodeo; the actor is best known for his role as a villain in James Mangold’s The Wolverine, where he stood as an impediment in the title character’s permanently doomed quest for love. (He also appeared as a Hydra agent on an episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., and has a role in the upcoming Jurassic World.) He’ll be joined in the new film, which is scheduled for June 3, 2016, by fellow Turtles newcomers Steven Amell and Tyler Perry as Casey Jones and the villainous Baxter Stockman, respectively. It’s currently unclear whether Amell, Perry, or Tee have strong feelings about Fugitoids one way or another, or if they’re all more into those mega-hip, hot-rodding Neutrinos.